https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/nyregion/ny-regents-teacher-exams-alst.html
Regents Drop Teacher Literacy Test Seen as Discriminatory
By Kate Taylor
New York Times, March 13, 2017
The Board of Regents on Monday eliminated a requirement that aspiring teachers in New York State pass a literacy test to become certified after the test proved controversial because black and Hispanic candidates passed it at significantly lower rates than white candidates.
The Regents also moved forward with a proposal that would allow some students who failed another test, aimed at evaluating practical skills like lesson planning and assessment, to be certified as teachers based on their grades and professors’ recommendations.
Together, the steps signal how much the Regents’ approach has changed under the current chancellor, Betty A. Rosa, after several years of efforts to raise the bar for entering the profession.
Under the previous chancellor, Merryl H. Tisch, the state created a set of more rigorous licensing exams. Among them was the Academic Literacy Skills Test, or ALST, which was intended to assess reading and analytical writing skills, and the edTPA, which requires candidates to submit a portfolio of work, including unedited videos of them interacting with students.
The literacy test proved challenging to many prospective teachers, but particularly for black and Hispanic candidates. An analysis done in 2014, the year the test was first administered, found that 64 percent of white candidates passed the test on the first try, while only 46 percent of Hispanic candidates and 41 percent of black candidates did.
Nonetheless, a federal judge who had found two older certification tests to be discriminatory ruled in 2015 that the ALST was not biased, because it measured skills that were necessary for teaching.
However, deans of education schools, especially those with large numbers of black and Hispanic students, disagreed, and argued that the exam was exacerbating a shortage of teachers of color. More than 80 percent of public-school teachers in the country are white, according to the federal Education Department, while a majority of public school students are not.
Others said that the exam was redundant, given the other requirements to become a teacher.
Michael Middleton, dean of the Hunter College School of Education, said in an interview on Monday that the battery of exams currently required of teacher candidates — four, in most cases — was onerous and expensive, and that eliminating the ALST was appropriate.
“We already know that our licensure candidates have a bachelor’s degree, which in my mind means they have basic literacy and communication skills,” Dr. Middleton said.
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.
The edTPA has not proved as difficult as the ALST: The overall pass rate is 77 percent, according to the state Education Department. But black candidates pass the test at rates lower than candidates of other races or ethnicities. A task force convened by the Regents, made up of deans and professors of education schools, as well as teachers and district superintendents, recommended recalibrating the passing score on the exam and allowing certain students who fall short of a passing score on the edTPA to become certified based on the recommendations of their teachers. The Regents agreed on Monday to move forward with that proposal.
Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said that eliminating the literacy exam because of minority candidates’ performance on it was the wrong response.
“What we are effectively doing is perpetuating a cycle of underperformance,” she said.
“People are showing a tremendous amount of weakness by just backpedaling because they feel like it’s the politically sensible thing to do,” she added.
Even before Monday’s actions, the Regents had backed off the tougher requirements, instituting safety nets that allowed candidates who failed the edTPA to try to pass an older test to qualify, and allowed those who failed the ALST to show through their coursework and grades that they had the skills that the test measures.
Hazard pay.
Kids probably read betterfthan teachers.
If teachers could TEACH like NBA players play basketball, every kid would read beyond their grade level, understand calculus, and recognize real science from intimidation fear factor junk science, and the teachers wouldn’t be trying to simultaneously have sex with the kids while also messing them up in the head sexually as well.
This is what used to be called, “Nice work, if you can get it”.
Schools of education are typically at the bottom of any university, right down there with journalism schools. It's no surprise they turn out teachers who can't pass literacy tests. How hard is it to draw up a lesson plan?!
We spend more on education than any other industrialized nation in the world. And what do we get for it? Illiterate high school graduates. I defy anyone to even tell me exactly how much we spend on education. And the teacher's unions are nothing more than Democratic Party money laundering schemes.
“Teachers to be Paid $150K in City Where Less Than Half of Students Are Good at Reading” or “read well”
I grew up in a blue-collar town that had one of the top school districts in Illinois when I was in school 50-60 years ago. It wasn’t flush with money. We had no learning technology: only books, pens, paper and chalkboards. We had proficient teachers. Students learned, not all at the same level, but each to his own ability. I remember some kids having some problems with reading and math, but they weren’t years behind where they should be. We had time and resources for instrumental music, industrial arts classes, business classes, and home economics. I know kids who picked up interests and skills from them that they were able to use in adult life. Classmates that I have kept up with have done well for themselves.
What changed between then and now?
Doubleplusungood
New Yawk, New Yawk, where you can make it grand!
If you want your kids stupid send them to leftist city schools. if you want your mortgage investment deteriorated buy a house in a leftist city, if you want to he a crime victim frequent a leftist city. If you want separated from your own income live in a leftist state/city and enjoy your taxes .......
You should get it by now as there is an obvious pattern to demise.
I had many wonderful teachers when I was a kid, 40-50 years ago. They never saw money like now... I also have known some teachers in my adulthood. Stupid and leftists. Making six figures teaching kindergarten (10-20 years ago). It is now a racket.
Thanks for posting that about teachers failing literacy. I used to post variants of it and forgot you were the one who did it first.
That word “discriminatory” began as a favorable term (”discriminating palate” “discriminating among fine piece of art”).
And why not choose the good, highly qualified teachers who help educate children properly over the ones who are not competent?
In the private sector, they’d be fired. Public employees are rewarded for poor performance and bad behavior.
Can they write headlines good?
I used to be an English teacher in AZ about 10 years ago. Even when I had a Masters in English, I struggled to make $40k a year. At that salary, I could not qualify to buy a house at median value which was pushing $200k at the time here. Health care was a big chunk of my paycheck as well. I eventually achieved a 92% pass rate for the state AIMS test for HS graduation.
I dont want to defend crappy teachers by any means. I couldnt afford to live on that amount. In AZ the teacher union doesnt really amount to anything (right to work state). We legally were not allowed to strike here either. A strike did happen a few years ago, and the legislature did raise salaries slightly. With California moving in, the cost of everything went up, houses in my neighborhood are now 400k minimum, gas is the same price as CA, and we had some of the worst inflation in the nation here.
Honestly, if I could afford to, I would love to teach still, but probably wouldnt be. I was the only conservative teacher at my school. And yes, I had to pass multiple tests to get my teaching license, literacy and professional exams. Math had math and professional to meet standards.
I guess my point is, that how do you afford to live on some of the state prescribed salaries in places like NY, California, and even Phoenix when the cost of living is driven out of proportion? Im just being real about that part. Shouldnt I have a chance to buy my own house? Or do I have to take a vow of poverty to be a teacher?
Salary schedule for PHX HS District: https://www.pxu.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=44613&dataid=64036&FileName=NEW%20Certified%20Salary%20Schedule%2022%2023%20SY.pdf
Teachers are useless