Hicks cited poor research

In his Aug. 3 column, Mike Hicks made a wide-ranging attack on colleges of education as refuges of mediocrity, insularity and poor research. In support, he cites a recent study by the National Council on Teacher Quality. To cite this as credible research, especially while criticizing the quality of education research, is shameful. No serious scholar considers NCTQ’s work anything but propaganda.

Hicks also claims that recent licensing rules for teachers in Indiana require increased content instruction for new teachers. At IU, as in many other colleges in Indiana, secondary education degrees have always required strong collaboration with other disciplines and in many cases more content courses than the disciplinary majors.

For example, students majoring in mathematics education on the Bloomington campus are required to take 39 hours of mathematics. A bachelor of arts in mathematics requires 33 hours. Mathematics education and mathematics majors take identical math courses taught by mathematics faculty. Education majors just take more of them.
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Gerardo M. Gonzalez, dean
Indiana University School of Education