The Future of America's Schools of Education: Repair or Replace?

Nearly a decade ago, as president of Teachers College at Columbia University, I led a national study of the state of education schools in America, which produced reports on the education of school teachers, school leaders, and education researchers. While strong programs were identified in each area, the reports were critical of current practices regarding program quality and admission standards.

I came to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation believing it is easy to throw bricks; the real challenge is to improve policy and practice. The situation of America's education schools is not unique. The United States is making a transition from a national, analog, industrial economy to a global, digital, information one. All of our social institutions -- government, media, healthcare, education, and the rest -- were created for the former. They work less well today than they once did and appear to be broken. They need to be refitted for this new era.

There are two ways to accomplish this -- repairing/reforming the existing institutions or replacing them, creating new versions that fit the times. Both are essential today for education schools. It is a mistake to do one and not the other. Here's why.

The Case for Repair

I can't count the number of times I have heard critics say we just need to blow up our education schools. Beyond disliking the expression, it would be a terrible error. More than 90 percent of school teachers and leaders are currently prepared by education schools. We need these schools to continue to prepare them if we are to have teachers in our classrooms and principals to lead our schools.The immediate need is to repair them, strengthen their programs, and raise admission and graduation standards while closing the poorest of the breed and investing in the best.

For the past eight years, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation has focused its efforts on repairing schools of education. Through our Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships, we partner with 28 universities in five states - Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio - to create model STEM (science-technology-engineering-mathematics) graduate teacher education programs designed to meet the needs of the 21st century. Through a state-based strategy, we recruited high-ability students with STEM undergraduate degrees to enroll in those programs and become career STEM teachers in high-need urban and rural schools.

The Woodrow Wilson Foundation created a similar Fellowship for school and district leaders, now partnering with business schools and education schools in three states - Indiana, New Mexico, and Wisconsin - to provide an MBA program for aspiring education leaders. This clinically intensive MBA not only provides leaders with the skills and knowledge needed to be both school managers and instructional leaders, but it is done in collaboration with local school districts to ensure a leadership pipeline that meets their real-time needs

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