February 9, 1995: Vol26n16: Petrie joins nation's top deans in call for radical overhaul of schools

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Bureau Staff
Hugh Petrie, dean of the UB Graduate School of Education, has joined
the Holmes Group in calling for the 250 schools that prepare most of
the nation's teachers to "get up to speed or get out of the business."
	The group, a consortium of 80 research university-based
schools of education that is dedicated to improving teacher education
and the profession of teaching, issued the call in a new report,
"Tomorrow's Schools of Education," released at a press conference held
in Washington Jan. 27.
	The report claims that the nation's education schools -- those
charged with developing and upgrading the skills of the nation's
education work force -- are dangerously out-of-sync with the needs and
realities of today's schools.
	Petrie said, "The simultaneous renewal of both schools and
institutions of higher education called for in the report is long
overdue." A call for accounting is welcome and necessary, he said,
adding that "perhaps as many as half of the institutions in the
country that prepare teachers are wholly ill-equipped to do so."
	"Colleges and universities can no longer stand apart in
splendid isolation from their responsibilities for the often dismal
performance of our elementary and high schools," Petrie said, adding
that the report "issues a clear challenge for reform, not only of
schools of education but of the larger institutions of which they are
a part."
	Judith Lanier, president of the Holmes Group, underscored the
importance of that message, saying, "There is a direct link between
the substandard quality of America's school system and the system that
prepares our teachers and other education leaders."
	The report, "Tomorrow's Schools of Education," calls for each
of the nation's 250 education schools -- schools that prepare both the
faculty of all the nation's college-based schools of education and a
significant number of the nation's K-12 teachers -- to adopt reforms
to improve the quality of teacher and administrator training or
"surrender their franchise."
	It charges that higher education must bear the brunt of
criticism for the lack of quality and innovation in teacher education,
and that schools of education exacerbate the problems of public
schools by preparing educators for a bygone era. It says that the
schools that prepare teachers should work with more innovative
institutions to help make teaching a truly intellectual profession.
	"Tomorrow's Schools of Education" points out that universities
treat their education schools like "poor stepchildren," penalizing
them for direct involvement with the public schools and denying them
necessary resources and support for innovations in teacher
preparation.
	The report notes, as well, that fewer than five percent of the
nation's university education faculty have taught in urban schools and
that many have not taught outside college in decades. In addition, it
says, too few institutions produce quality research on teaching and
too few help frontline educators apply new research in the classroom.
	Among other things, the report commits the nation's top
education school deans to: 
	o	Develop new multiracial and multicultural faculty and
teacher-candidates reflecting the diversity of students in K-12
schools;
	o	Partner researchers with teachers to ensure research
is targeted to teachers' needs and so that new ways of making our
nation's schools more productive are disseminated to teachers who can
use them;
	o	Develop new standards of quality for the professional
schools preparing educators and hold them accountable to the
profession and the public by strengthening both market and
accreditation forces;
	o	Take the lead on education issues and work with
education policymakers to ensure a quality education for all students,
and
	o 	Collaborate with all quality institutions preparing
educators in the states to ensure access to research knowledge and
exemplary sites and to promote quality and accountability.