Programs to "prepare the nation’s K-12 teachers" are probably terrible at doing that because it is not their purpose. The purpose of teacher qualifications is

Programs to "prepare the nation’s K-12 teachers" are probably terrible at doing that because it is not their purpose. The purpose of teacher qualifications is to lend status to the profession, and to serve as arbitrary yardsticks for promotion. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/10/pdf/teacher_effectiveness.pdf http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/10/pdf/teacher_e... "traditional measures of teacher qualifications, such as completion of a preparation program, number of degrees, or years of experience... [serve as] the basis for making decisions about hiring, tenure, licensing, compensation, and selection for leadership roles... current measures for evaluating teachers are not often linked to their capacity to teach" If ability to teach is not relevant to teachers' career prospects, there is probably not much pressure on universities to offer training that improves it.