Mike Flanagan, superintendent of public instruction for the Michigan Department of Education, wrote a response to College of Education Dean Paula Wood's July 17 opinion piece on the state ranking system for teacher preparation programs. Flanagan wrote that the state's focus is for the highest quality teacher preparation programs in Michigan and that the new ranking plan is only a piece of the revised system yet to come. He added that the deans of the teacher prep programs at Michigan's colleges were included in the criteria's development, and two high-profile members of the group gave it their full endorsements. Flanagan wrote that not all of the state's 32 teacher education programs are likely to survive a new system, but those left standing will be the best in the nation.`