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In the United States and Canada, a school of education (or college of education; ed school) is a division within a university that is devoted to scholarship in the field of education, which is an interdisciplinary branch of the social sciences encompassing sociology, psychology, linguistics, economics, political science, public policy, history, and others, all applied to the topic of elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education. The U.S. has 1,206 schools, colleges
and departments of education and they exist in 78% of all universities and colleges.^[1] According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 176,572 individuals were conferred master's degrees in education by degree-granting institutions in the United States in 2006–2007. The number of master's degrees conferred has grown immensely since the 1990s and accounts for one of the discipline areas that awards the highest number of master's degrees in the United States.^[2]

History and areas of interest

Schools of education are historically rooted in the 19th century normal schools. After the Civil War, universities began to include instruction in pedagogy, competing with normal schools in the preparation of teachers. Pedagogy and psychology, which previously were considered to be subsets of philosophy, gained status of legitimate collegiate academic disciplines thanks to William James and John Dewey. By 1900, most universities had some formal instruction in pedagogy.^[3] For a long time teacher education, curriculum, and instruction remained the core offering of schools of education.

By the 1930s, schools of education started training educational administrators such as principals and superintendents, and specialists such as guidance counselors for elementary and secondary schools.

Many graduates of schools of education become involved in education policy. As such, issues such as equity, teacher quality, and education assessment have become focuses of many schools of education. The issue of equitable access to education particularly is common, specifically focusing on low-income, minority, and immigrant communities, is central to many areas of research within the Education field.^[4][5]

Types of programs

Typically, a school of education offers research-based programs leading to Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Education (M.Ed.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) or Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) degrees, as well as professional teacher-education programs leading to Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Education (M.Ed.), or Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) degrees. Schools of education also offer teacher certification or licensure programs to undergraduate students. Generally schools of education have graduate programs related to teacher preparation, curriculum and instruction (or curriculum and teaching), public policy and education, and educational administration. In addition, some schools of education offer programs in school counseling and counseling psychology.

Criticism

Schools of education have been blamed for low academic standards and "Mickey Mouse" courses^[6], when earning an advanced degree in education, specifically a master level degree, doesn't seem to actually make someone a better teacher.^[7]Abraham Flexner called courses like "the supervision of the teaching staff", "duties of school officers", "awareness of situations and planning of behavior", "reflective thought as a basis for teaching method" to be "absurdities and trivialities". He admonished the attention "devoted to tests, measurements, organization, administration — including administration of the teaching staff and how to organize for planning the curriculum".^[8] Katherine Merseth, director of the teacher education program at Harvard University, described graduate schools of education as the "cash cows of universities".^[9][10] Former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that “by almost any standard, many if not most of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st-century classroom.” He also characterized many education schools as "cash cows" for American universities.^[11]

Prominent figures, including E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Diane Ravitch, Chester Finn, and Lynne Cheney^[12] criticized schools of education for ostensibly Left-wing political bias, favoring socialist philosophies such as Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy^[13] and the "Teaching for Social Justice" movement, creating academically, professionally, and socially inhospitable environment toward students whose political views do not conform to the Left-leaning ideology^{[14][15][16][17]}. Other critics like Lyell Asher argued that Paulo Freire, who warned against precept not to think, may be more revered than read, for ed schools pushing "an already left-leaning academy far in the direction of ideological fundamentalism"^[18]. Their interest in educational equity sometimes crosses over the line between academic research and political activism^[4], intimidating even the social strata meant to be protected by the ed schools' ideology, so that "even small differences of opinion are seized on and characterized as moral and intellectual failures, unacceptable thought crimes".^[19]

Lyell Asher went as far as calling ed schools "menace to higher education" for pushing their version of "social justice" not just into everyday curricula of university students, but into daily life on campus, saying that "even raising questions is an offense against this version of social justice".^[18] He says that campus administrators "talk not just about social justice 'training' but also about social justice 'literacy'", which must be learned "beyond the classroom". Mr. Asher says that there might be "nothing wrong with training students in equity and social justice were it not for the inconvenient fact that a college campus is where these ideals and others like them are to be rigorously examined rather than piously assumed".^[18] He blames the surge of residential life "curricula" on the selfish motives of the ed schools' administrators to present themselves not as resident advisers but as residence-hall "educators". He supports the argument of E. D. Hirsch that professors of education, "surrounded in the universities by prestigious colleagues whose strong suit is thought to be knowledge, have translated resentment against this elite cadre into resentment against the knowledge from which it draws its prestige"^[20]. Mr. Hirsch warns that it is "never a healthy circumstance when people who are held in low esteem exercise dominant influence in an important sphere. The conjunction of power with resentment is deadly"^[20].

Notable schools of education in the U.S.

The annual rankings of U.S. News & World Report placed the following schools of education in the top 20 of all graduate education institutions in the United States for 2018.^[21] They follow here, with identical numbers indicating ties:

1. University of California—Los Angeles


2. Harvard University


3. 
   


2. University of Wisconsin—Madison


3. 
   


4. 
   


4. Stanford University


5. 
   


6. 
   


4. University of Pennsylvania


5. 
   


6. 
   


6. New York University


7. 
   


8. Teachers College, Columbia University


9. Vanderbilt University


10. University of Washington


11. 
    


10. Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy


11. 
    


12. 
    


10. University of Southern California


11. 
    


12. 
    


10. University of Texas—Austin


11. 
    


12. 
    


13. University of Oregon College of Education


14. 
    


15. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor


16. Arizona State University


17. University of Virginia


18. 
    


17. Johns Hopkins University


18. 
    


19. 
    


17. University of Kansas


18. 
    


19. 
    


19. University of California—Berkeley


20. 
    


21. 
    


19. University of Minnesota—Twin Cities


20. 
    

Notable scholars within schools of education

• David Berliner


• Benjamin Bloom


• Jerome Bruner


• George Counts


• Linda Darling-Hammond


• John Dewey


• Paulo Freire


• Nicholas Gage


• Howard Gardner


• James Paul Gee


• Henry Giroux


• Gene V Glass


• Stephen Krashen


• Gloria Ladson-Billings


• Peter McLaren


• Deborah Meier


• Nel Noddings


• Diane Ravitch


• Lee Shulman

See also

• Normal school


• Teacher education


• Student teacher


• Certified teacher


• Alternative teaching certification


• 
  Postgraduate Certificate in Education (United Kingdom)


• Postgraduate Diploma in Education


• Postgraduate education


• Postgraduate diploma


• Education Specialist


• Teacher training college

References