NCTQ Review Sharply Critical of Student-Teacher Programs

The student-teaching experience offered by many traditional schools of education couples poor supervision with a lack of rigorous selection of mentor-teachers, a controversial report concludes.

The report, released last month by the Washington-based National Council on Teacher Quality, examines student-teaching practices in 134 education schools, or about one-tenth of such programs nationwide. All but a quarter of the programs reviewed earned a “weak” or “poor” rating.

“It tells you a lot about the state of teacher education that we find it acceptable that student-teachers don’t have to meet a measure of quality, nor do the people who train them,” said Kate Walsh, the...