Posted on 03/12/2017 1:11:24 PM PDT by southern rock
New York education officials are poised to scrap a test designed to measure the reading and writing skills of people trying to become teachers, in part because an outsized percentage of black and Hispanic candidates were failing it.
The state Board of Regents on Monday is expected Monday to adopt a task force's recommendation of eliminating the literacy exam, known as the Academic Literacy Skills Test.
Backers of the test say eliminating it could put weak teachers in classrooms. Critics of the examination said it is redundant and a poor predictor of who will succeed as a teacher.
"We want high standards, without a doubt. Not every given test is going to get us there," said Leslie Soodak, a professor of education at Pace University who served on the task force that examined the state's teacher certification tests.
The literacy test was among four assessments introduced in the 2013-2014 school year as part of an effort to raise the level of elementary and secondary school teaching in the state.
Leaders of the education reform movement have complained for years about the caliber of students entering education schools and the quality of the instruction they receive there. A December 2016 study by the National Council on Teacher Quality found that 44 percent of the teacher preparation programs it surveyed accepted students from the bottom half of their high school classes.
The reformers believe tests like New York's Academic Literacy Skills Test can serve to weed out aspiring teachers who aren't strong students.
But the literacy test raised alarms from the beginning because just 46 percent of Hispanic test takers and 41 percent of black test takers passed it on the first try, compared with 64 percent of white candidates.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Moron students, moron teachers. But hey, we have diversity.
This is why are kids are stupider than we are.
our lol
I’m glad they got rid of that test. Who cares whether teachers can read?
Pure racism.
How come dey axe me such tuff kestions?
Heaven forbid that we have literate teachers ...
It did not “weed out minorities,” it weeded out those who lacked to requite skills to teach what they were being hired to teach.
Those tests would also eliminate a good many of the “studies” majors currently oozing from our so-called “universities”. I’d bet it would measurably cut those who were stupid enough to try for a Masters or even a Doctorate in those silly pursuits.
Please. It is spelled aks.
Why should teachers be literate? It’s RAYCISS or something.
Seconded
CC
Sacrificing quality at the altar of diversity has sent this country down the tubes. Now we’re to the point where the Education Sec needs a security escort, while places like South Korea, India and Japan are probably laughing their butts off.
You can ignore the truth. But you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring the truth.
CC
Because the important thing is their genetics not their knowledge.
So the test actually worked but political correctness is more important than learning.
They should rename the State Board of Regents to The State Board Of Equal Outcome.
Their Mission: To drag all students down to the lowest common denominator and ensure that no student outperform the others.
Am important distinction.
One solution: have students who want to be high school teachers major or minor in the subjects they want to teach and obtain a BA or BS in that field. Then go on and get a MA degree in education including student teaching.
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