In a report released earlier this week, the president of Teachers College at Columbia University criticized graduate schools of education for failing to provide adequate preparation for elementary and secondary school leaders.

“Collectively, educational administration programs are the weakest of all the programs at the nation’s education schools,” Arthur E. Levine wrote in the report, which is available on the Teachers College website.

Levine faulted programs for lacking coherent curricula, having low admissions standards, and relying on underqualified faculty. He recommended eliminating doctoral degrees in school leadership and instead creating a master’s degree program in educational administration, requiring students to study both education and management.

The report was based on surveys of education school deans, faculty, and alumni as well as school principals and superintendents.

The researchers also conducted case studies of 28 schools that are to remain anonymous.

Harvard Graduate School of Education (GSE) Dean Ellen Condliffe Lagemann declined to comment on the report through a spokesman yesterday.

But Paul L. Harris, professor of education at GSE, took issue with Levine’s claim that educational administration programs “range from inadequate to appalling.”

Harris said that most GSE students are already studying to receive master’s degrees, rather than the doctoral degree in educational leadership that Levine criticized.

Harvard’s program is “in a reform process,” Harris said. “Since Dean Lagemann has been here, we have already made several changes.”

Harris said he recognizes that the nation’s education schools have room for improvement, but he added, “That doesn’t distinguish them from all the other professional schools and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.”

Alvin P. Sanoff ’63, an education journalist and university consultant who served as project manager for Levine’s study, praised the study for being the “most comprehensive effort to look at education schools that has been undertaken.”

While Sanoff said he could not comment on Harvard’s education programs specifically, he said the criteria the report outlined for evaluating educational leadership programs applies to the GSE, as well.

Sanoff said that education schools often sit low on the pecking order at large universities and can suffer as a result.

“Historically, Harvard’s school of education has suffered from lower status compared to Harvard’s other schools,” said Sanoff, who is the former managing editor of U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” and “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”

But Harris said he does not sense such a lack of attention from the administration at Harvard.