Minority scores lag on teaching test. Panel to study failure rate, bias complaints

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At what point (if any), should we be willing to accept less than the ideal or best qualified teachers for our children?...

Minority scores lag on teaching test
Panel to study failure rate, bias complaints

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff | August 19, 2007

More than half the black and Hispanic applicants for teaching jobs in Massachusetts fail a state licensing exam, a trend that has created a major obstacle to greater diversity among public school faculty and stirred controversy over the fairness of the test.


The minority failure rate has been demonstrably higher than among whites since the test's inception nearly a decade ago, according to state statistics, which show that 52 percent of Hispanic applicants and 54 percent of black applicants fail the writing portion of the exam. By comparison, 23 percent of whites fail. Black and Hispanic teachers also lag behind white teachers in major subject tests such as English, history, and math.

The problem has become so acute that a state task force of teachers, professors, hiring directors, and state education officials convened last week to begin examining why minorities fare so much worse on the tests.

"One of the fallouts which is particularly upsetting in our experience across the colleges is fewer and fewer students of color are even going into teaching because word has gotten out that these tests are very difficult for them," said Sally Dias, a vice president at Emmanuel College in Boston who is a member of the panel. "One test should really not be a determinant of someone's career."

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Armando Jaime, who was teaching special education on a waiver in the Boston Public Schools for eight years, was demoted to a nonteaching job last year after his waiver was denied because he had failed the teaching test at least eight times since 1998. His $62,000 teaching salary was cut nearly in half, he said, and he was forced to take a part-time job as a waiter.

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[ananda]

1. In my former district..

Back in 1970, I had to take the National Teachers Exam
to get certified. I was surprised to learn that HISD didn't
require a teacher's exam when I got hired, and I was even
more shocked to learn, over the years, how illiterate and
ill-educated many teachers were.

A few years later, the district came up with a sort of test
for teachers to pass.. but it was pretty basic, mostly just
a bit of math and English.

A little later, they added a writing test and you wouldn't
believe the fear and uproar that caused.

Many of the teachers at my school would cheat.
I know one English teacher who took the writing test for
other teachers who were barely literate.

Of course, why would an auto mechanics need to be all
that literate anyway?

However, teachers in the core subjects were doing this
too.

Many colleges were putting out teachers who weren't
as literate as I was in fifth grade.

I was always appalled at the state of un-education at my
school. Over the past fifteen years, it has turned into
teaching the test and manipulating scores.. and idiotic
fascist-like micromanagement that went to ridiculous
lengths.

[msongs]

2. failed the test 8 TIMES??? hmmm, maybe in his case the test worked fine..

certainly these tests may have certain quality problems, cultural and language biases, but if you've taken a test 8 times and still haven't figured out what kind of information the test will require, maybe being a teacher is not your field. Of course each of the 8 tests will have different questions, however, an astute person should be able for recognize trends in test content.

in our area there are many schools doing poorly according to california testing standards and NCLB, since the hacks in congress don't understand that taking a test in a language you can't speak, read, or write well is a recipe for failure, and there are likely similar problems with adult tests.

but 8 times??? sheesh.

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[dsc]

3. but is he a good teacher?

He isn't teaching rocket science or literature appreciation. He is teaching special education. If he is doing that well, then he should still be doing it.