What did the Massachusetts teacher tests say about American education?

Phi Delta Kappan

Volumn 82, Issue 10, 2001, Pages 773-780

  Fowler, R Clarke ^a  

^a SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0038647195     PISSN: 00317217     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/003172170108201014     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. Elizabeth Mehren, "For Would-Be Teachers, a Failing Grade," Los Angeles Times, 3 July 1998, p. A-1.
2. Darrell Pressley, "Dumb Struck: Finneran Slams 'Idiots' Who Failed Teacher Tests," Boston Herald, 28 June 1998, pp. 1, 28.
3. Richard Whitmire, "High-Quality Teachers Can Have Huge Impact," Gannett News Service, 10 August 1998.
4. I have kept a running tally of the pass rates as each new set of results is released and posted on the state department's website. Readers may request a copy free of charge from me (clarke.fowler@salemstate. edu).
5. Jordana Hart, "From Madison, via Silber," Boston Globe, 5 August 1998, pp. A-1, A-20.
6. The Educational Testing Service produced a report that included, among other statistics, the percentage of test-takers who passed different sections of the Praxis exam after failing on their first attempt. (See "The Use of Praxis Pass Rates to Evaluate Teacher Education Programs: An ETS Background Report," Educational Testing Service, May 1998, Princeton, N.J.) The estimates were that, during the 1996-97 program year, 2.0% of all test-takers who passed the reading and 3.0% of those who passed the writing sections of the Praxis I Academic Skills Assessments were repeat test-takers. Using ETS' methodology, I calculated the same statistics for the MECT's 1998-99 program year. This analysis indicated that 6.4% of all test-takers who passed the reading exams and 5.9% who passed the writing exams were repeat test-takers.
7. "Shocking Failure," Augusta Chronicle, 14 July 1998, p. A-4.
8. Jean MacMillan, "Massachusetts Grades Aspirins Teachers on a Curve," Washington Post, 28 June 1998, p. A-10.
9. "Grading the Graders: Is Teacher Testing the Best Way to Improve Academic Achievement?," The News-Hour with Jim Lehrer, Public Broadcasting System, 15 September 1998.
10. John Silber, "Those Who Can't Teach," New York Times, 7 July 1998, p. A-15.
11. "Request for Responses Regarding Massachusetts Certification Tests of Communication/Literacy Skills and Subject Matter Knowledge," Massachusetts Department of Education, 24 February 1997, p. 2.
12. "Massachusetts Board of Education Meeting, December 15, 1997," videotape of the board meeting.
13. "Massachusetts Teacher Tests: Questions and Answers," Massachusetts Department of Education, January 1998, p. 5.
14. Ruth Mitchell and Patte Barth, "How Teacher Licensing Tests Fall Short," Thinking K-16, Spring 1999, p. 7.
15. Ruth Mitchell and Patte Barth, "Thinking K-16, Ibid., p. 17.
16. "Improving the Assessment of Communication and Literacy Skills for Prospective Teachers: Report on the Massachusetts Educator Test of Communication and Literacy Skills," Advanced Literacy Skills Study Group, July 1999, p. 7. This report is available free of charge from Anne Herrington, Department of English, Box 3-0515, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-0515.
17. Improving the Assessment of Communication and Literacy Skills for Prospective Teachers: Report on the Massachusetts Educator Test of Communication and Literacy Skills," 1999, p. 7. Ibid.
18. American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education, Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1985).
19. Walt Haney, Clarke Fowler, Anne Wheelock, Damian Bebell, and Nicole Malec, "Less Truth Than Error? An Independent Study of the Massachusetts Teacher Tests," Education Policy Analysis Archives, vol. 7, 1999, available at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/ v7n4/.
20. "Improving the Assessment of Communication," p. 10.
21. Improving the Assessment of Communication," p. 10. Ibid.
22. "Massachusetts Educator Certification Tests: Technical Report Summary," Massachusetts Department of Education, 27 July 1999, p. 8; available at www. doe.mass.edu/teachertest/072799c/techsumm.html. The entire five-volume technical report may be purchased from the state department for $340.
23. Larry H. Ludlow, "Teacher Test Accountability: From Alabama to Massachusetts," Education Policy Analysis Archives, vol. 9, 2001, available at http:// epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v9n6.html.
24. Richardson v. Lamar County Board of Education et al., 729 F. Supp. 806, 820-21 (M.D. Ala. 1989), aff'd 935 F. 2d 1240 (5th Cir.)
25. A. Paul Cellucci, Veto Items: Fiscal Year 2001 General Appropriations Act, Outside Sections (Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts), Sec. 414, p. 16.
26. "Board in Brief," Massachusetts Department of Education, 27 March 2001.
27. Pamela Ferdinand, "Nearly Half of Aspiring Teachers Fail Latest Massachusetts Test," Washington Post, 13 August 1998, p. A-6.
28. MacMillan, p. A-10.
29. Ronald Hambleton, "Politicians Fail, Not the Teachers," Education Connection, Winter 1999, p. 19.
30. Kate Zernike, "Union Is Urging a National Test for New Teachers," New York Times, 14 April 2000, p. P-1.
31. Beth Daley, Doreen Vigue, and Kate Zernike, "Survey Says Massachusetts Test Is Best in US," Boston Globe, 22 June 1999, p. B-2.
32. Whitmire, Boston Globe, op. cit.
33. Kati Haycock, "Good Teaching Matters . . . A Lot," Thinking K-16, Summer 1998, p. 11.
34. John Kerry, "Board of Ed Errs on Teacher Testing," Boston Herald, 26 June 1998, p. 31.
35. Steve Forbes, "The Alarming News," Forbes Magazine, 21 September 1998, p. 32.
36. "A Test That Makes the Grade," Boston Globe, 7 October 1998, p. A-24.
37. Mitchell and Barth, p. 16.
38. Richard Freeland, "Answering a Wake-up Call at Northeastern," Boston Globe, 27 July 1998, p. A-11.
39. Kate Zernike, "Report Finds a Third of Students at State Schools Need Basics," Boston Globe, 11 November 1998, p. B-5.
40. "Why Our Teachers Should Be Tested," Boston Herald, 7 December 1998, p. 26.
41. I heard Silber make these comments during a special public meeting held at the Massachusetts Department of Education, Malden, that preceded the state board's regular meeting on 15 May 1998.
42. Walter C. Varnum, Psychology in Everyday Life, 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1942), p. 271.
43. Linda Darling-Hammond, "Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: A Review of State Policy Evidence," Education Policy Analysis Archives, vol. 8, 2000; available at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n1/.
44. Jeremiah Murphy, "Debate on Schools Heads Down the Wrong Road," Boston Globe, 25 July 1998, p. A-15.
45. Walter Haney, George Madaus, and Amelia Kreitzer, "Charms Talismanic: Testing Teachers for the Improvement of American Education," Review of Research in Education, vol. 14, 1987, pp. 169-238;
46. and George Madaus and Diana Pullin, "Teacher Certification Tests: What Do They Tell Us?," Phi Delta Kappan, September 1987, pp. 31-38.
47. The Teachers We Need and How to Get More of Them: A Manifesto (Washington, D.C.: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 2000).
48. R. Brian Cobb et al., "An Examination of Colorado's Teacher Licensure Testing," Journal of Educational Research, January/February 1999, p. 167.
49. "Record Number of Candidates Take and Pass April Massachusetts Educator Certification Tests," news release, Massachusetts Department of Education, 12 May 2000, p. 1.
50. Heinrich Hoffman, Slovenly Peter; or, Cheerful Stories and Funny Pictures for Good Little Folk (Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1873).