Daily News | Pa. waived the basic skills requirement for educators. Will it work to attract more teachers?
If you’re a teacher, student, parent or administrator who has a story to tell about how the teacher shortage has impacted you or your school, please contact staff writer Susan Snyder atDoes the basic skills requirement lead to better teachers?
The Inquirer had asked the state department of education for a comparison of certification pass rates between 2013-14, the year the basic skills requirement was passed, and the most recent year available, 2020-2021, and saw no overwhelming pattern of improvement. For example, there are seven certification exams that fourth- through eighth-grade teachers take, depending on their subject areas.
“This is just opening an opportunity for them to grow and to be able then to meet those requirements at the end of their program,” she said.“Quite often the response has been to widen the gate, lower the bar,” said University of Pennsylvania education professor Richard Ingersoll, an expert on America’s teaching force.
Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, saw the waiver as a reasonable attempt to respond to the teacher shortage, but said it’s critical the department collects data to evaluate the impact and be ready to possibly re-activate or modify the requirement. The department should look at whether candidates are able to pass certification tests and get their licenses as well as assess how effective they are in teaching students.
Some warned that standardized tests, long criticized as being unfair, especially to students of color, only discourage potentially strong candidates.
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