States Not Raising Teacher Standards, Study Finds

Are you able to read National Geographic? Did you pass junior high math? Then you too might have what it takes to be an elementary school teacher in most states.

If you managed to pass algebra and geometry, then you might also be ready to get some chalk dust under your fingernails by teaching those courses to high school students.

At a time when states are striving to make far greater demands on students, they are not similarly raising their standards for what they expect of teachers, concludes a study to be released today in Washington.

“Millions of children are being damaged daily by under-prepared teachers, because we’ve refused to establish high enough standards for entry into the field of teaching,” said Patte Barth, a policy analyst at the Education Trust who is a coauthor of the report.

Seven states have no licensing exams for new teachers. Only 29 states require prospective high school teachers to pass tests in the subject they plan to teach.

The content of those tests is “within easy reach of many of the students the test-takers are expected to teach,” the report said.

Moreover, states set low passing scores. In Georgia, an applicant can miss more than half the questions on a math test for high school teachers and still earn a license. Oregon sets the highest passing mark in the nation on that test, but aspiring teachers still can miss a third of the questions.

Passing marks are set low to ensure a sufficient supply of teachers but also to avoid lawsuits by dissatisfied job-seekers, the report said.

California requires all teachers to take a basic skills test. A lawsuit charging that the test, known as the California Basic Educational Skills Test, is illegal and racially discriminatory is making its way through the courts. During that litigation, the state removed virtually all questions requiring knowledge of geometry and algebra.

Now, that test no longer expects those who take it to know the difference between a median, a mode and a mean--the midpoint of a series, the most frequent number in a series and the point that is commonly referred to as the average of a series.

The Education Trust is a nonprofit group that works to improve the quality of education for poor and minority children. Barth said those children are the most likely to be exposed to poorly trained teachers.

Most disturbing to the authors was that teachers are not required to demonstrate that they have a deep knowledge of key concepts, the kind of knowledge that enables teachers to help students attain a similar level of understanding. Instead, the licensing tests emphasize simple recall of facts and rote skills.

“Why should prospective teachers go to college if this is all they need to know?” asked Lynn Steen, a former president of the Mathematics Assn. of America and an advisor to the study.

Steen, a math professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., said teachers must know far more than their students to answer their questions and be able to “think of different ways of presenting the material to different students.”

He said states don’t require prospective teachers to take enough math in college and the tests “don’t guarantee they know anything either.”

Officials of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing disputed the report’s conclusion that the tests for secondary school teachers are too easy. Candidates for teaching jobs who have completed a California-approved education-related program do not have to pass any test. Anyone with a college degree, however, can get a temporary permit by passing two tests of their knowledge of the subject they want to teach.

Dennis Tierney, director of professional services with the commission, said that only 40% of the test-takers passed one of the two tests in math and only 31% passed the other, even after several tries.

“We set the minimum standards,” he said. “Obviously, we want teachers to know more than what the kids know. But, on the other hand, legally we need to be careful that the material we’re demanding that they know be material they will need to know on the job.”

The Education Trust report said that typical reading passages in the tests required of elementary school teachers were written on the level of National Geographic, which the study’s authors said should be readily understood by students in the fifth and sixth grades.

The study criticized the tests for high school teachers in the language arts, saying that no questions require them to “show that they know how to do useful things with what they know.”

The study’s authors say such skills are critical, given that most states now have written student standards that emphasize the ability to apply one’s knowledge to solve problems and to think and write analytically.

Many states waive even those minimal expectations in the event that they cannot readily find enough qualified candidates.

The report’s authors recommend that, for elementary school teachers, states create tests that measure whether candidates have at least the general knowledge required of a four-year college liberal arts program. For high school teachers, the report recommends that states require passage of the most rigorous of the now-available tests.

In addition, the authors said, minimum passing scores should be raised and states should begin aligning licensing exams with academic standards for students.

But Barth said states will begin raising their requirements only if the public demands better qualified teachers.

“The only thing that’s going to cut through . . . is if the public gives policymakers the backbone to say that we can’t expect kids to meet high standards unless we expect teachers to meet high standards,” she said.

Concern over the skills and performance of teachers has risen to the top of the education agenda nationally. Among the factors fueling that rise are a number of studies documenting the profound impact of individual teachers on the academic achievement of students. In addition, the nation is on the verge of hiring 2 million or more teachers, as a generation of classroom veterans approaches retirement and student enrollments swell.

A year ago, 59% of those taking the teacher licensing exam in Massachusetts failed to pass, which was seen nationwide as evidence that teachers were poorly prepared. In 1998, Virginia raised the passing score on its basic skills test and 35% of the applicants failed at least one of the three sections on the test.

Arthur E. Wise, president of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, was skeptical of the new report’s conclusions. Nevertheless, he agreed that “teachers must know their content and they also must know how to teach it.”

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* STANDARDS FOR STUDENTS: Literacy experts unveil grade-by-grade skills needed for proficiency in reading, writing. A3