The nation's education secretary recently likened education colleges to the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield.

"Historically, education schools were the institution that got no respect," said Dr. Arne Duncan in a speech at Columbia University last week.

But Dr. Duncan is also charging these institutions with mediocrity and is calling for a "revolutionary change, not evolutionary tinkering" to the way university education departments train future teachers in this information age. His remarks are included in a speech where he cites a 30 percent high school dropout rate and criticism from teachers who say they didn't receive enough hands-on training in college.

Dr. Max Ruhl, dean of the college of education at Northwest Missouri State University, got a sneak preview of Dr. Duncan's remarks during a consortium of higher education administrators a week before his Columbia remarks. And though he won't lump Northwest into Dr. Duncan's assertion that education colleges are doing a mediocre job, he said the secretary brought forth many issues that are keeping the U.S. behind other countries.

"His charge is to make America No. 1 once again," Dr. Ruhl said, adding that some put America's education ranking behind eight other countries.

Missouri has 40 institutions that prepare teachers. Northwest is one where the entire institutional focus is significantly on preparing teachers, said Dr. Ruhl, which is what Dr. Duncan would like to see happen across the nation. "It has so much to do with the success of our country down the road," Dr. Ruhl said.

Citing a 2006 report by Arthur Levine, a former president of Columbia University's Teachers College, Dr. Duncan said that three out of five teachers said their training didn't prepare them for the classroom. He also said one of the top complaints among teachers is that they didn't get enough hands-on experience while in college.

Similar complaints from secondary education students at Northwest were heard before a "reinvention" occurred about five years ago. Elementary education students have for many years been required to teach a full semester before graduation, but secondary education majors weren't held to the same standard. Dr. Ruhl said they upped the field experience by 40 percent, while establishing another program that takes students from Northwest and other Missouri schools and places them in urban environments.

"Not only do they see what's going on in the classroom in an urban school," Dr. Ruhl said, "but they live in the environment and learn about it."

The St. Joseph School District, which hires a majority of its teachers from Northwest and Missouri Western State University, sees many of its teachers in student-teaching roles prior to being hired. It's like an extended job interview, said Doug Flowers, director of human resources for the district.

Mr. Flowers said in regard to Dr. Duncan's statement about unprepared teachers, that it's partially the job of the school districts to develop their teachers and acclimate them to instructional practices.

"I think it's difficult to point the blame at other people," he said, referring to college education departments. "That's why we have interview processes. In the end, (the districts) made a judgment call on one person over another, and maybe the poor decision was theirs."

Jimmy Myers can be reached at jimmym@npgco.com.