Author: By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff

Date: THURSDAY, July 2, 1998

Page: A1

Section: Metro

The schools must wait until August to learn which of their students failed, and officials say it is too early to scrutinize a particular program or entrance exam.

But as the Board of Education voted yesterday to reinstitute the original scoring standard for the teaching exams -- effectively failing the majority of all candidates -- college deans admitted they bore some responsibility for the disastrous results.

The state's higher education board is also moving swiftly to hold colleges accountable. It will convene a meeting of education deans from across the state on July 27 to discuss ways to improve the performance of students in teaching programs.

"Clearly, higher education has a significant role in the training of teachers," said Bailey Jackson, dean of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "So clearly, if there is some evidence that there's something wrong, then it's going to be up to us to figure out how to fix it."

The chairman of the Board of Education, Boston University chancellor John Silber, placed the blame even more squarely on the institutions, describing their curriculums as filled with "mindless education courses" and "cockeyed theories."

"We really do have a problem with the schools of education," Silber said. "It is my opinion that they are the most serious obstacle to effective education reform in the nation."

The central university standards -- admissions scores and grade-point averages -- have been lightning rods for attack since 1996, when a Department of Education survey revealed that some state students studying to become teachers had combined scores as low as 642 on the 1,600-point SAT exam.

In the years since, in an effort to improve standards, basic entrance requirements have been elevated at many Massachusetts schools.

Minimum grade-point averages -- ranging from 2.5 to 3.0, depending on the school and the degree program -- are also in place in almost all undergraduate and graduate education programs, according to area deans. And according to higher education chancellor Stanley Koplik, the level of student competency has soared within the last two years, as a result of admissions reform.

But Koplik acknowledged that the teacher-test results indicated that much work remains, and that will be discussed at the July 27 meeting of college deans and educators from every public and private education program in the state.

Already, in the weeks since the test results were announced, select schools have begun brainstorming about solutions.

At Bridgewater State College, officials have, in recent days, proposed a requirement that undergraduate teaching-school candidates pass the state teaching test before admission to the degree program.

In the University of Massachusetts system, various officials within the schools of education have "already begun discussing the kinds of preparation needed in the education schools," said Selma Botman, vice president for academic affairs.

Koplik, who like Silber backed the tougher teacher-test scoring system at yesterday's Board of Education vote, said the purpose of the July meeting is to "open up the discussion" about what can be changed within education departments.

But the results of the test -- in which general literacy was a central component -- indicate a much broader problem, one with implications that reach far beyond the next crop of teachers, Koplik said.

"No one that essentially has an inability to communicate should be able to be let out the door after four years of college," Koplik said.

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