NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee education officials are training teachers from across the state on how to implement a new set of uniform benchmarks for math and reading.

Education Department spokeswoman Kelli Gauthier says more than 30,000 teachers have signed up to be trained on the common core state standards over the next six weeks. Training sessions began on Tuesday.

The standards, which 45 states and the District of Columbia are adopting, are described as a set of higher expectations in math and English that include more critical thinking and problem solving.

The training comes at the same time a report is released by the National Council on Teacher Quality that says the nation's teacher-training programs do not adequately prepare would-be educators for the classroom.

Out of the more than 1,000 programs surveyed, Vanderbilt University and Lipscomb University were among only four programs that received four stars.