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 ...
“It did not “weed out minorities,” it weeded out those who lacked to requite skills to teach what they were being hired to teach”.
The test weeds out incompetent teachers who disproportionately are minorities. The SAT test is no longer used much for college admissions because minorities disproportionaltely score poorly. The same goes for civil service tests for firemen, police, etc. We can send people to the moon and back but we cant seem to develop a test where certain minorities perform as well as whites. Maybe that’s why saying “the most qualified candidate should get the job” is now considered racist.
What?
Sounds to me that the test was doing exactly what it was meant to do. If a person cannot read, they should not be a teacher regardless of race or ethnic background. Those who cannot pass should go back to school and learn to, not be allowed to skate by.
I never realized the test was to be a predictor of how well someone can teach. I thought it was to be a determiner of whether someone had enough knowledge of the subjects to impart to students.
If the teachers don't know the substance of the subject they are teaching, it doesn't matter how good they are at teaching it. The students won't get everything they need.
I say we do this with airline pilots as soon as possible.
Test meant to screen teachers instead weeded out minorities
Bad test, bad bad bad test!
If we are not eternally vigilant great teachers could slip into the system and *gasp* student might begin to excel in their studies!!!
Ax me why dis hapen.
Neither ABC News nor the author of this article see even the slightest irony in their use of the word “instead” in the headline: “Test meant to screen teachers instead weeded out minorities.”
The test had to be axed b-cuz it was too accurate of a barometer of the Truth.
Long Live the Lie!
Oofs I meants to say the Troof.
They don’t even try to really hide the lie anymore.
Reason 2,487,698 to homeschool
Because everyone knows for a Nation and its people to succeed and prosper it should hire non-qualified dunces to teach the children.
Wait a minute...
If you can’t pass a PRAXIS I reading, math, and writing, you don’t need to be a teacher.
I used to not be able to spell teecher and now I are one.
You am now, official Citizen of Bizzaro World!
Us now present you with Key to the City Dump. Lucky you!
Down with skillism!
Bizzaro Scrwel Board of Diwrecktorz say:
Fire hard-working, smart, qualified Teechers
Give dumb, lazy, slow ones a raise!
perfect
Hmmmm. Why could it be black cities have abysmal education results?
Another example of “truth avoidance.”
—The Bell Curve, Charles Murray (blacks have 85 IQ
—Justice Dept. stats, blacks commit homicide at rates more than 7 times the rate of whites
But try to find honest discussion of such matters. Nearly impossible.
If the teachers aren’t any smarter than a 7 yr old, and that’s ok, get rid of the teachers, pick a student and have him/her conduct class.
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