So concern is focused on the right issue. Not everyone agrees, though, that making teaching a profession through accountability and gatekeeping measures similar to those in law and medicine is the right approach. The only thing that will change teachers' behavior is consequences, asserts Chester E. Finn Jr., the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in Washington, which promotes charter schools and other market-oriented initiatives. I don't think recommendations for fixing the teaching pool are likely to alter the behavior of individual teachers and principals in schools, and the name of this game has got to be altering behavior. A nationally representative survey conducted by Public Agenda for Quality Counts shows that educators generally resist such high-stakes consequences, while parents and employers support them.
Education schools are an increasingly popular focus for state accountability efforts.
Beginning this year, New York will hold teacher education programs accountable for their graduates' performance on state tests. If fewer than 80 percent of a program's graduates pass one or more licensing exams, and if deficient programs don't show improvement toward meeting that target, they won't be permitted to produce teachers. Currently, the pass rates of institutions range from as low as 30 percent to as high as 100 percent of teacher candidates, the regents' task force found. Beginning in 2000, under a bill pending in the Massachusetts legislature, education schools would be in danger of losing their right to prepare teachers if 20 percent or more of their graduates flunked state tests for two years in a row. Texas and Florida now take passing rates into account in making decisions about allowing teacher-preparation programs to operate.