Parents call for moratorium on certification tests; SUNY Potsdam prepares to teach future...

[hrmjustin]

Parents call for moratorium on certification tests; SUNY Potsdam prepares to teach future educators

By ALAN RIZZO

POTSDAM — Although New York state is offering a safety net test for those who fail the new Education Teacher Performance Assessment certification test (edTPA) — one of four tests introduced May 1 for teacher candidates — parents of candidates are calling for more, and educators are left to figure out the puzzle of preparing the teachers to come.

Thomas S. Pinto, Eastchester, an alumnus of SUNY Albany and father of a candidate who graduated from SUNY Brockport this May, called the current state of testing a double standard, arguing that if Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and legislators can approve a two-year moratorium on evaluations as they did in June — to help current teachers being negatively impacted by Common Core — they can and should do the same for all four of the certification tests, allowing current candidates to take the old tests. This, he said, is because the new tests align directly with Common Core.

“It is grossly unfair to deny teacher candidates who have earned education degrees the opportunity to enter the teaching profession because of curriculum and standards that Governor Cuomo and legislators have recognized as rushed and flawed,” Mr. Pinto said. “The tests required for certification prior to May 2014 need to be reinstated.”


http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20140718/NEWS05/140718727

[Android3.14]

1. If a teacher does not know his or her content

then he or she should stay away from the classroom.
Readers on DU should note that the testing they are talking about is to certify adult college students to teach students in public schools, and not about testing public school students. The parents who are calling for the moratorium are the parents of adult teacher candidates, not children.
That being said, a transition to the new testing for certification would have been a better plan than suddenly dumping it on the student teachers.