Recommendations from "Educating School Teachers," a report on how teacher training could be improved at colleges and universities:

• Transform education schools from "ivory towers" into professional schools focused on school practice. Their fundamental purpose should be the education of teachers.

• Make student achievement the primary way to judge teacher education programs. This would require each state to have data systems to track student progress over time.

• Make five-year teacher education programs the norm. Teachers would need to complete a traditional major and then advanced study on how to communicate that subject to students.

• Improve quality control. Accreditation standards should be rooted in student achievement. States should establish common standards for traditional and alternative teaching programs.

• Close failing programs and strengthen promising ones. The report suggests top universities have a disproportionately large number of the good programs and that those should expand.