It’s the time of year when education bureaucrats get into a
bullying mood and this time their target is teacher education. The U.S.
Department of Education has released the proposed teacher preparation
regulations that are open for public comment through the federal register
through February 2nd and they contain the same problematic features of the new CAEP standards (see
my previous post). Here in New York we’ve had the public release of
college-specific certification exam results with inflammatory headlines
proclaiming future teachers are flunking and are illiterate (here are results). Our education commissioner, John B. King, continues his aggressive agenda to
close teacher preparation programs with dubious justifications of
accountability and transparency, only now he’s headed to Washington D.C. to work side by side with Arne Duncan.
There have
been some badly needed responses from teacher educators. Fred Kowal described
why the release of the certification exam scores was irresponsible and unfair
in a radio interview and my colleague Howard Miller wrote an excellent letter in response to
coverage in the New York Times. What has me in a rage is that I know firsthand from my student teachers at
Mercy College’s Bronx campus just how impossible life is for them right now.
Yet they are getting through all this adversity with admirable professionalism
and poise and I am bursting with pride. The schools where they have been doing
student teaching are equally impressed, and their cooperating teachers are despairing
that their internships are coming to an end this week. So in our weekly seminar
meeting we talked about what might be an appropriate response. They helped me
with ideas for the parody below. We hope it makes you laugh, but mostly, we
hope it makes you think. These exams are really that bad.
Commissioner Regents And Policymakers Test
(Time allotted: 60 minutes - tic tic tic)
Should Teachers Be
Required to Pass Tests Before They Can Be Certified to Teach?
Use the passages below and the information in the graphic to
write two focused responses and an extended response. Your responses should be
written for an audience of educated adults. You must maintain an appropriate
style and tone and use clear and precise language throughout. With the
exception of appropriately identified quotations and paraphrases from the
sources provided, your writing must be your own. The final version of your
responses should conform to the conventions of edited American English.[1]
Focused Response Assignment: Use Passages A and B to respond
to the following assignment.
In a response of approximately 100-200 words, identify which
author presents a more compelling argument. Your response must:
- outline
the specific claims made in each passage;
- evaluate
the validity, relevance, and sufficiency of evidence used to support each
claim; and
- include
examples from both passages to support your evaluation
Focused Response Assignment: Use Passage B and the Graphic
to respond to the following assignment.
In a response of approximately 100-200 words, explain how
the information presented in the two charts can be integrated with the author’s
central argument about the impact of licensure requirement reforms on
preservice teachers. Your response must:
- explain
how specific information presented in the charts either supports or counters the
author’s claims, reasoning, and evidence with regard to new licensure
requirements; and
- include
examples from the passage and the charts to support your explanation
Extended Response Assignment: Use Passages A and B and the
Graphic to respond to the following assignment.
In a response of approximately 400-600 words, present a
fully developed strategy for policy reform that satisfies the needs of
stakeholders, is informed by current research in the field, and balances
benefits and drawbacks of testing preservice teachers prior to initial
certification to teach. Your strategy for policy reform must:
- include
evidence that you are knowledgeable and understand the issues
- use
research evidence and valid reasoning to support your strategy for reform
- support
the claims made with relevant and sufficient evidence from all three sources;
and
- anticipate
and address the counterclaims of those who will undoubtedly oppose your
strategy for reform
PASSAGE A
By Imani Diot
Pro:
Dubious Funders of Education Reform (DFER)
Are most teachers smarter than a fifth grader? Probably not.
Researchers from The Institute for Obscure Equations conducted a survey in 2009
and found that over 90% of currently employed elementary teachers could not
solve this problem[2]:
How can our students be ready for college and careers if
they aren’t taught to decode important secret messages such as these? We will
end up with an entire generation that is completely reliant on Google for all
knowledge.
Until now, we have asked colleges and universities with
programs that prepare teachers to be responsible for ensuring they are smart
enough for the job, but it turns out that those professors aren’t smarter than
a fifth grader either, so we need a more objective measure. In fact, we need lots
of objective measures. Research suggests that the harder the test, and the
higher the cut score used to determine a pass rate, the less likely people are
to question the validity of the test (Preason, 2012). In the past, teacher
tests that were piloted and field tested nationally produced high passing rates
and were the subject of ongoing debates about how the results must be
unreliable and invalid.
To address this need, new tests have been designed that will
ensure we are able to determine who is smart enough to be a smart teacher.
Research has shown that smart teachers are hard to come by, because most
teachers are lazy and only chose to teach because they want extended vacations
and a shorter work day (Grates Foundation Report, 2011). These tests will
require the ability to look at very small typeface in a florescent-lit room
while using multiple tabs and windows to examine documents for hours without a
break. These testing conditions have been proven to cause weaker candidates to
experience panic, fear, and loss of confidence, especially when distracting
noise is present. Testing topics have been preselected to be of interest to
only a very small minority of the population to ensure maximum distractibility.
While computer-based testing can resolve most of the
concerns about making sure our teachers are smart, practitioners will never
give up the argument that they are insufficient measures of how teachers
perform in front of real, live students. To counter this argument, a new test
was created by brainiacs at Smartford University that will end this debate once
and for all. This one requires weeks of preparation, decoding hundreds of pages
of documents and guidelines, videotaping in public schools (which can require
cumbersome permissions and paperwork), and months of writing up detailed
analyses and data summaries. An added bonus is this exam can also lessen the
power that colleges and universities have over the preparation of teachers,
eventually eliminating the justification for useless theory and foundation
courses.
Together with the other tests, we can be sure that only the
very smartest and brightest will teach in our nation’s schools. Even if they
only stay in the profession for two years, at least they will have provided our
students with the googling skills they need to succeed.
PASSAGE B
By Wendy Tessurbad
Con:
No Test Is Fair (NTIF)
Teachers today have to be prepared for a myriad of
unexpected challenges: a student throws up on you, the door to the classroom
breaks and you’re locked inside, or the intercom speaker in your room has a
persistent buzzing hum. Can a test predict if you will know how to handle such
situations? Of course not. But somehow the public is reassured that if teachers
take tests they’ll be well equipped for the problems facing them once they have
their own classrooms.
Multiple choice tests are notoriously silly and useless, and
research has shown that high scores correlate with good test takers (ETS Report
on the SAT, 2002). In the case of licensure tests for teachers, most present
short examples and cases for analysis that do not reflect what teachers have to
think about in a real life scenario. Bias is also unavoidable as in the
following example:
Marcus
offers you a smushed, half-eaten cupcake. You should:
a) Accept
with a smile and eat it immediately to show your appreciation for his kind
gesture
b) Tell
him you can’t eat gluten but appreciate the thought
c) Split
the cupcake into two parts and give one to your teaching assistant
d) Split
the cupcake into lots of tiny crumbs so everyone in the class can have some
Were you fooled into thinking b was a good answer? The question
is designed to trick celiacs and gluten sensitive people into choosing that
answer, but the correct answer is d, which has the most equitable outcome.
Another problem with the teacher exams is the scoring
process. While computers can score multiple-choice questions, they are not very
good at scoring essays, at least not yet. People who are hired to score teacher
exams are not paid very much, and would probably find a job at a fast food
burger restaurant more enjoyable and satisfying. Research has shown that hours
and hours of reading similar responses can lead to an inability to distinguish
between a STRONG grasp of writing skills and a SATISFACTORY grasp of writing
skills (Minduming, 1998) and in at least 15% of the cases studied, to
inappropriately selecting NO grasp of writing skills whatsoever. Some testing
opponents have even suggested that test scorers outsource the work to their
children and bribe them with candy and video games (Nutjob, 2012).
Finally, it’s self evident that licensure exams are not
necessary. Preservice teachers have to pursue their degree while juggling jobs
and family responsibilities, they have to write endless lesson and unit plans
using original ideas, and prior to student teaching they have to squeeze in
time for fieldwork in school settings without conflicting with their current
employment. Then for the semester of student teaching, they have to wake up
very early every morning even if they were up late studying and writing papers,
or if they suffer from various symptoms related to the constant exposure to
germs, and they have to do all the work their cooperating teacher doesn’t feel
like doing, plus help all the students the cooperating teacher doesn’t know how
to help (or doesn’t like), and they have to prepare and deliver perfect lessons
for their supervisor’s visits. “I just love student teaching!” said no teacher
candidate ever. Furthermore, if they are unable to control the most unruly and
disobedient students, they are deemed unfit for teaching and may be told they
need to repeat student teaching again. Only those people who really, really
like kids and the challenges of teaching would put up with all of that for a
measly starting salary and unacceptable working conditions. Why put them also
through difficult to pass exams that cost hundreds of dollars? That’s just
rubbing salt in the wound.
Tests are bad, tests are dumb. Here’s my verdict: A pointing
down thumb!
GRAPHIC
New York State Preservice Teachers Survey (NYS IHE,
2014)
3,278 teacher candidates throughout New York State were
surveyed about the new licensure exams: Academic Literacy Skills Test (ALST),
Educating All Students (EAS), Content Specialty Test (CST), and the Teacher
Performance Assessment (edTPA). They were asked to check boxes correlating to a
range of symptoms reported from pilot testing. Percents reported below have a
margin of error of 0.00001.
|
|
Financial ruin
|
Panic, stress, depression
|
Need new eyeglasses
|
Migraine headaches
|
Broke up with partner
|
|
ALST
|
97%
|
100%
|
99%
|
98%
|
95%
|
|
EAS
|
95%
|
92%
|
91%
|
99%
|
93%
|
|
CST
|
96%
|
97%
|
89%
|
92%
|
97%
|
|
edTPA
|
98%
|
100%
|
92%
|
97%
|
99%
|
Washington State Preservice Teachers Survey (WAS IHE,
2014)
Following five years of pilot testing, the edTPA requirement
went into effect in Washington State. 1,003 preservice teachers were surveyed
about their response to the edTPA requirement.
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