Sometimes the conventional wisdom is right. Education really is an easy major. This study from the National Council on Teacher Quality, the bête noire of America’s teacher prep programs, finds that 44 percent of prospective teachers graduate with honors, compared to only 30 percent of all graduating students at the same colleges. The reason appears to be that grading standards for education majors are much lower than for students in other majors on the same campus. NCTQ analyzed course assignments on the syllabi for nearly 1200 courses at thirty-three schools—not just in education, but in a variety of majors. The 7,500 assignments in those courses were then classified as either “criterion-referenced” or “criterion-deficient.” The former means that students were graded on “a clearly circumscribed slice of knowledge and skill-based content,” which ostensibly allows instructors to provide substantive feedback and comparisons of student work. By contrast, “criterion-deficient” assignments were more subjective in nature. These latter kinds of assignments are used about twice as often—71 percent versus 34 percent—in education coursework. The report also examines and dismisses several popular theories for why ed majors earn so many As: Yes, a rising tide of grade inflation has lifted all boats, but teacher candidates’ boats are like hovercraft rising above the waves. Interestingly, the assumption that ed school is all low-level assignments and group work turns out to be a canard—as is the less commonly held belief that ed students and faculty are simply stronger than other departments. “If one believes in training teachers by equipping them with effective techniques, then having criterion-referenced assignments is essential,” the report concludes. Mighty big “if.” The schools covered in NCTQ’s report train—well, credential—half of the country’s annual crop of new teachers. If they enter the classroom without having practiced and mastered the content and skills they need to be effective, they begin their careers already behind.
SOURCE: Hannah Putman, Julie Greenberg, and Kate Walsh, “Training our future teachers: Easy A’s and what’s behind them,” National Council on Teacher Quality (November 2014).
