Some Education Schools Should Abandon Research Doctorates, Report Says

Overview & Synopsis

Research-oriented doctoral programs in education vary widely in quality, and a significant number of them should close up shop, according to a report released last week by the Education Schools Project. The new document, "Educating Researchers," is the third in a series of reports on schools of education from Arthur Levine, who served as president of Teachers College of Columbia University from 1994 until last year. He is now president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and director of the Education Schools Project. Levine and his colleagues conducted surveys of deans, faculty members, alumni, and school principals; scrutinized the research productivity and citation history of instructors in doctoral education programs; and analyzed the dissertations of more than 1,300 people who earned education doctorates in 2002. The bottom line: While many institutions that offer doctorates in education produce excellent researchers, Levine writes, many others "are not strong enough to sustain such programs in terms of their missions, hiring practices, faculty quantity and quality, research funding, and climate." Objections to the report's conclusions are also discussed.