Education school officials, including some at the University of Wisconsin, are criticizing a new rating survey for evaluating teacher education programs.

U.S. News & World Report announced last month it will perform a new survey on more than 1,000 schools of education in order to rate the quality of teacher training programs, according to a statement from the National Conference on Teacher Quality, a partner in the study.

Kate Walsh, NCTQ president, said the venture will include a compilation of information provided by education schools that will include measures such as selectivity of the admissions process and how well students are trained in various subjects.

The measures are being taken to ensure that students are being trained effectively, Walsh said.

“Our aim is to shine light on the schools that are doing a good job as well as those that aren’t doing so well,” Walsh said.

The Association of American Universities and many education school deans, including UW Dean of the School of Education Julie Underwood, expressed their concern about the new survey and the resulting scores in a letter addressed to the editor of U.S. News & World Report.

In the letter, which was sent last Thursday, the education leaders question the methodology that will be used to evaluate the programs and the magazine’s intention to include the label “fail” under certain categories the universities did not provide information for.

Walsh said including the term “fail” was an attempt to make sure universities participated in the survey, but U.S. News & World Report and NCTQ later decided not to use the term in order to show that they were willing to work with the deans.

Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, UW associate dean of the School of Education, said the scope of the concern raised by education leaders was much broader than just a single word.

She said much of the concern began because the survey will focus mostly on the input measures and not output measures.

In order to assess how well students were trained at various universities, the effectiveness of their own teaching skills need to be measured as opposed to focusing on curriculum, Hanly-Maxwell said.

She added the survey would also examine class syllabi to assess curriculum, which is not a consistent or accurate measure of what is actually taught in the classroom.

Professors change class syllabi all the time and they are not always accurate reflection of what is covered in a course, Hanly-Maxwell said.

Hanley-Maxwell said UW’s school of education is very competitive and does a great job of training students to become effective teachers.

“The UW is not concerned about looking bad,” Hanley Maxwell said. “We just want to make sure that all schools are evaluated accurately.”

Walsh said education deans are mostly upset because an external organization is taking this on, and it is very unsettling to them to have somebody from the outside reviewing their programs.

“These are all public institutions,” Walsh said. “They have a certain obligation to be transparent about what they’re up to.”