Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Teachers can't pass certification tests

https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/...aze%20Daily%20AM%20-%20last%20270%20days

I find this disturbing on so many different levels. I often feel like my gifted children are smarter than their teachers. Or, at least, that was the case in elementary school. Are the tests really so difficult, or we're now scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to hiring teachers?

It appears they believe that if they teach 3rd graders they should only have to be proficient in maths up to third grade level.

LOL, yep, exactly. The teachers presumably have college degrees. Well, if they are able to graduate college but then can't pass a test with elementary level math standards, something is seriously wrong. Either the teacher training programs are incredibly dumbed down and anyone who has a pulse can graduate, or something is very wrong with the tests. But what? My kids seem to always do well on them, no matter how dumb they may be. But teachers with high school and college degrees can't pass them?

The article and the article it references say that the math portion questions are most likely out of touch with what might be expected of an elementary school teacher. For example, one person quoted says her high school graduate who took AP math couldn't answer some of the practice questions. The other indicated that it was 11th grade material - which is several years past 'elementary'.

It's buried in the second article, but it sounds like teachers have to pay to take the test and the test prep, so the company has a financial incentive not to make sure the test relates to teaching ability or success, but to make sure it's hard to pass. Why get one payment when you can get four? The school corporation in question didn't bother to check to see if it was a good test either, including having no way of tracking progress.

Teaching programs are indeed incredibly dumbed down.

Sample question from the NC test:


Other questions required subtracting two numbers written in scientific notation, an understanding of the slope of a line (basic algebra 1), a very basic geometry problem, and a probability problem (8th grade level?). I can understand that some people would forget some of this stuff if they hadn't done it in a while, but there's no excuse for not knowing what the slope of a line is when you've known for four years that the test is coming up.

There's also a full practice test. I looked through the questions. They require a decent but not stellar knowledge of algebra I and high school geometry, but nothing beyond that. If people can't pass that test, it's not the test's fault.

Elementary ed. teachers --- really, anyone coming out of a college degree --- should have a good knowledge of basic algebra and geometry.

I honestly wish that the teacher corps would stop making excuses and blaming the test for lack of knowledge. Also, recent college graduates who can't pass a math test set at an 8th - 10th grade level have no right to call themselves "educated."

I know that there are some highly educated and intelligent teachers out there. But there are too few of them, and the problem is not simply teacher pay. They're just as clueless around here, where pay averages $75K+ per year for 8-9 months of work.

A recent college graduate should be able to pass a test set at an 11th grade level, and yes, elementary school teachers should know mathematics well beyond what they're teaching. You can't teach something if you don't know what's coming later, and know it well.

But, as noted, that test is set at an 8th-10th grade level (with most material being 9th grade and below).

https://www.abcactionnews.com/longform/teachers-failing-state-certification-test-at-alarming-rates

This link has a very short "sample test" at the end that you can take yourself. I got all of them correct and thought the answers were obvious, and I bet even my 11-year-old could get them all correct, so I guess I don't see why people think these tests are so unfair. We don't want dummies teaching our kids. But with teacher shortages, that's the direction we're headed.

So what are you doing instead of teaching? Just curious.

Personally, since I view education as being about communication, not calculation, I'd be much more worried if teachers had trouble passing reading comprehension, critical thinking, or writing tests.

My husband does not come close to making 75+ after 13 years teaching.

The BLS stats for elementary teachers in CA show a mean salary of 77K and in NC a mean of 45K. Those work out to the same more or less adjusted for cost of living. So Val is right mathematically, but I wouldn't head out west.

The assertion that the test taker is responsible for failing the test relies on the assumption that the test provider is not making errors.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-problems-a-list/?utm_term=.ac8c8ae18529

"[C]ulture emphasizing profitability and cost-cutting" doesn't sound like a paragon of pedagogy.

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I think I'm being upset on a subconscious level here because the pejorative dumb/dummies is being bandied about here against people who aren't even present. For nearly forty years I had it drilled into me that before there were terms like 2e and learning disabilities there was only dumb an lazy. That my life was better for those terms not being the go to explanation anymore.

I may internally struggle with understanding why people have so much trouble learning skills, but I don't attack them and call them dumb. In fact I lay most of the blame on myself. If I was better at teaching they would understand. I was taught that the one way to know that you actually learned something is not passing a multiple choice test, but can you actually teach it to someone else.