When Public School Teachers Can't Pass the Test

Andrew Wolf in the New York Sun brings up a problem with school reform. A significant percentage of minority teachers can not pass the teacher's exam required to receive certification in the state of New York. So what do the teachers do. Do they study to pass the test next time? No! they scream discrimination and demand the already easy test be made easier.

Mr Wolf says.

The test appears to me to be more appropriate as an exit exam required for high school graduation than as an entrance exam for new teachers. The claims of the plaintiffs that the test is "culturally and generationally bound" is absurd. This is a simple test of general knowledge and skills that represents the least that we should expect of someone to whom we entrust with the education of our children.

Inadequate teachers aren't the only was who want protection from their lack of knowledge.

Those who believe in the ideology behind this suit also have their sights set on another area of the city's educational scene, the specialized high schools.

A report issued by the Department of Education last week disclosed that the proportion of blacks and Hispanics attending the city's three most prestigious high schools, Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech, has been declining for a decade. Even the proportion of white students is slipping as Asians, representing just 15.3% of the total public school population, now represent a majority at all three schools.

Their solution rig the test so more African-American's can pass it. At the expense of the Asian and white students who have the knowledge to pass the test as is.


Related Tags: teacher certification, testing