Teacher licensing exam has too high failure rate: Regents Updated January 10, 2017 6:12 PMBy John Hildebrand
[email protected] N...
They looked not only at student test score gains, but also at years of teacher experience and
teacher licensing exam scores.
State education officials are eyeing a plan that could «recalibrate» — and presumably lower — passing scores on a challenging new
teacher licensing exam that has produced a failure rate of more than 20 percent since it was introduced statewide in 2015.
As for the current means of measuring a prospective teacher's readiness for the classroom, A 2012 investigation by Education Week's Stephen Sawchuk concluded that raising the cut scores for state - level
teacher licensing exams might not do much to boost instructional quality.
Not exact matches
The state's Board of Regents acknowledged that failure rates are running far too high — at 23 percent — on a
teacher -
licensing exam taken so far by about 22,000 college students and others statewide.
Mr David Ofori Acheampong, the General Secretary of Ghana National Association of
Teachers has stated that their members are ready for any
exams for
licensing.
A school - by - school breakdown of scores on Massachusetts» first - ever
exam for
licensing new
teachers is forcing some education schools to take a hard look at their curricula, even as state officials propose creating one of the nation's most intensive programs of
teacher recruitment and training.
Teachers are taught (and via
licensing exams, tested on) empirical observations (how kids think and act) as well as psychological theories.
It does, though, identify low - performing
teacher education programs, based on the passing rates of their graduates on
teacher -
licensing exams.
The institutions» education students must have passing rates of 80 percent or higher on the subject - matter -
licensing tests for
teachers, and 85 percent or higher on the Praxis III
exam.
Studies also have found that
teachers coming through alternative routes perform at least as well, if not better, on state
licensing exams than traditional graduates.
Since there is little research directly assessing the influence of pedagogical training on student outcomes, this debate tends to focus on the impact of
teachers» performance on licensure
exams and the merits of
licensing teachers.
Efforts to Improve
Teacher Quality: Mississippi requires its high school
teachers to pass subject - matter
exams in the areas they plan to teach to earn their
licenses.
It isn't enough to require
teachers to pass a written
licensing exam.
In addition, high school
teachers must pass subject - matter
exams to earn their initial teaching
licenses.
Teacher licensing tests had been suspended in 1985 as a result of a lawsuit by African American educators demonstrating that the state's
exams designed by National Evaluation Systems were racially biased and improperly validated (see Examiner, Spring 1987).
It was a little surprising to see the AFT take a stand against the edTPA
teacher licensing test given President Randi Weingarten's support for similar «bar
exams» for
teachers, and it got me thinking about «professionalizing» teaching in general.
Among the many strategies for improving public school teaching — performance pay, alternative certification,
licensing exams, and professional practice schools — reformers have long neglected a potentially powerful one:
teacher evaluations.
Elementary
teacher candidates who were
licensed as a
teacher in any state after July 1, 2006, are required to produce evidence of passing an accepted content knowledge
exam in the content area he / she will teach.
It calls for making
teacher preparation programs more selective, requiring
licensing exams to be more relevant, increasing
teacher salaries, paying better
teachers more, making tenure more meaningful, and reorganizing the school day so that
teachers have more time to plan.
All individuals who wish to earn a Texas
teacher license and become a classroom
teacher must earn a bachelor's degree, complete an approved educator preparation program, pass a certification
exam for the area they will be teaching, submit a state application, and submit to fingerprinting, according to the Texas Education Agency.
«Their legislation seeks to change
teacher licensing standards from requiring that
teachers pass a Praxis
exam to requiring that they pass the much more rigorous North Carolina Foundations of Reading and General Curriculum tests, which are based on Massachusetts» MTEL
teacher licensure
exam.»
If you're interested in a career as a science
teacher, this program provides you with all the required preparation (including student teaching) to qualify you for the state
licensing exam.
Its Alabama
teacher -
licensing exam was dropped by the state after a lawsuit revealed that the firm fabricated evidence for claims of the test's accuracy (see Examiner, Spring 1987).
We do, however, take issue with assessments that are implemented in a rushed manner, that have elementary school students sitting for longer periods of time than are required for most professional
licensing and certification
exams, and that test learning without students and
teachers having the benefit of materials and resources necessary to receive and deliver appropriate instruction.
Candidates for the Regular II
license must also submit verification of completion of a
teacher preparation program as well as passing scores on the appropriate Praxis Principles of Learning and Teaching
exam.
The state Education Department has said it will review another required
licensing test, the Educating All Students
exam, which measures
teachers» skills at reaching students with disabilities and those learning English, to see if it should be adjusted to also assess literacy skills.
Four factors perpetuate this patchwork system: from state - to - state, licensure
exams are rarely a meaningful measure of readiness to teach; the bar for passing is often set too low; little uniformity exists across state lines; and current processes limit the ability of
teachers to easily transfer their
licenses to other states.
To qualify for a Regular I
license, prospective
teachers must earn passing scores on the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators
exam and the Praxis Subject Assessments in the area (s) to be taught.
The special education generalist
teacher is required to pass the Generalist PLACE
exam prior to
licensing.
A Harvard study of students in Texas found that a
teacher's level of education, experience, and scores on
licensing exams have a greater influence on student performance than any other factor.
More than twenty class action lawsuits charging the Educational Testing Service (ETS) with damaging 4,100 prospective
teachers by erroneously giving them failing grades on its Praxis Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT)
licensing exam (see Examiner, Fall 2004 and Spring - Summer 2004) have been consolidated in Federal District Court in Louisiana.
Upon completion of the program and passage of the CORE
exams, apprentices qualify for an Indiana
teacher instructional
license.
Once students have successfully completed all coursework and state mandated
exams for
teacher certification, they are recommended as
teacher candidates to the Illinois State Educator Preparation and Licensure Board to receive
licensing.
Leaders of the Committee for a Fair
Licensing Procedure in New York City have filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charging that the demotion of many minority
teachers for failure to pass the Educational Testing Service's NTE (formerly the National Teachers Exam) violates federal civil righ
teachers for failure to pass the Educational Testing Service's NTE (formerly the National
Teachers Exam) violates federal civil righ
Teachers Exam) violates federal civil rights laws.
The
exam differs from most other
licensing tests because it hinges on a demonstration of a
teacher - candidate's classroom instruction, rather than a series of multiple - choice questions, as is the case with other popular
teacher - tests.