I wish the education reform movement would put more focus on the broken schools of education that fail to attract highly qualified students or to train them to perform well in the nation’s classrooms.

Six years have passed since The Education Schools Project, headed by Arthur Levine, former president of Teachers College at Columbia University, issued a comprehensive and scathing indictment of the nation’s schools of education. The report found an overwhelming lack of academic standards and understanding of how teachers should be prepared. It determined that “most education schools are engaged in a ‘pursuit of irrelevance,’ with curriculums in disarray and faculty disconnected from classrooms and colleagues.” Moreover, schools of education have become “cash cows” for universities. The admissions standards are low. The research expectations and standards are far below those expected in other disciplines. And there is no pressure to raise student academic outcomes because, at least in part, school districts often only care about a “credential” and not the learning it represents.

Have things improved since Levine’s report? Speaking at a panel during the recent Excellence in Action National Summit on Education Reform, Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, previewed the results of a comprehensive study to be published in U.S. News & World Report in April 2013. It affirms little has changed. For example, only about 20 percent of schools of education have admission standards that even require applicants to be in the top 50 percent of their high school graduating class. Only 25 percent of schools of education require their students to be placed with an “effective” teacher when student teaching. (more…)

Rick Scott at the BOE. Not much to report beyond board chair Gary Chartrand’s brief dig at No Child Left Behind. redefinED here. Gradebook here. Orlando Sentinel here. AP here. Sun-Sentinel here.

More on that ad. The campaign ad that seeks to tie a Democratic state House candidate with Jerry Sandusky is the kicker to this piece by Tampa Bay Times columnist Daniel Ruth. AP picks up the story.

Think tank doesn’t like Amendment 8. Add Education Sector to the list of those who don’t like Amendment 8 and say it’s about vouchers – but could benefit from more homework. This post on the Ed Sector blog, the Quick and the Ed, is written as if Florida doesn’t already have private-school vouchers.

StudentsFirst endorsement. Michelle Rhee’s group likes Aaron Bean, the Florida Times Union reports, in a northeast Florida race for state senate.