President Arthur Levine's research on graduate education programs found most suffering from irrelevant curriculum, low standards, weak faculty and little clinical instruction.  In a report released Monday, Levine stated many programs are doing little more than dishing out higher degrees to teachers who are trying to qualify for salary increases.  "The best chance we have is to scare the hell out of them and tell them the truth," he said about the colleges, adding their enrollment figures will drop as their credibility deteriorates. 

Levine recommended state intervention to shut down inadequate programs if competition and self-monitoring do not spark change.  He also suggested having states and districts determine salary increases according to the new skills employees demonstrate and not simply the new credentials they have earned.  The report is the first in a series known as the Education Schools Project, funded by the Annenberg Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Wallace Foundation.  The four-year study is based on surveys of deans, faculty, alumni and school principals, along with 28 case studies of schools and departments of education.

The article, entitled "Study: School Leaders Poorly Educated," appeared in the March 14 edition of the Boston Globe.

Published Tuesday, Mar. 15, 2005