Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

MTEL Test Gap Raises Spectre of Cultural Bias

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Cross Posted at Granby01033

People tend to think that if the state creates a test it must be good. For the The Massachusetts Tests for Educational Licensure, that may not have raised the case. Although as one teacher educator told me, I don’t see teacher candidates who can’t read and write anymore, the test doesn’t claim to measure the qualities of a good prospective teacher. In order to predict who will become a good teacher, the test would have to isolate and measure the skills and knowledge of effective teachers before they become effective. There is no test that can do that.

The test is also pass/fail. Plenty of candidates fail the first time or two, but there is no difference between them and the candidates who pass the first time. Except for excluding the people who never pass, the test has no purpose. The cramming done by candidates who take the test a second time is very unlikely to change their prospects as a teacher.

MTEL is now facing a sizable gap between white and Black and Latino teacher candidates. Several factors probably account for the gap from poor preparation in high school and college to a culturally-biased test. On other tests, the achievement gap between these groups is persistent and pronounced, and research has been extensive. Recent research has focused on what Robert Sternberg calls cultural intelligence. My guess is that there are problems with test bias on the MTEL, but cultural differences are also bound to persist.

From the Springfield Republican:

SPRINGFIELD – Higher test failure rates among blacks and Latinos who hope to become public school teachers in Massachusetts have prompted a review by the state Department of Education.

The recent decision to explore widely disparate passing rates was hailed as long overdue by some educators, who cited cases of bright young people whose dreams of teaching were crushed by the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure.

“For years, I think this test has been bleaching the teaching force,” Salem State College Associate Professor R. Clarke Fowler said this week.

Fowler, who has lobbied for greater scrutiny of state teacher tests, said racial and ethnic differences in scores could result from schools and colleges failing to preparing minority students adequately. Fowler said there may also be flaws in the tests themselves, including the phrasing of questions and their relevancy.

“There needs to be a meticulous examination of the test,” Fowler said.

–Mb

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Comments

  1. The people who think tests are objective measures need to be forced to read things like this.

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    There are other ways to determine if someone is a satisfactory teacher.  Not least would be having a person begin an apprenticeship as a teacher and have more experienced teachers assess their work.

    • is that Connecticut’s BEST program has a two-year mentoring program that is similar to what you describe (and which I agree with). I think teacher candidates still have to take a test.

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      Cheers,

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      Mark

      • I think content-specific teachers at the high-school level should take a truly content-heavy examination for licensure.  (I can’t begin to articulate my frustration with colleagues who are teaching high school English and don’t know the periods of American literature, don’t know why 1855 marks the beginning of the modern era in poetry, and can’t begin to articulate the transition from Modernism into Post-Modernism.)  Middle level licensure should be contingent on passing a section that is less content specific but heavy on middle level theory and middle school model.  Elementary licensure should be heavy on developmental theory and differentiated instructional practice. 

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        The MTEL, as it’s currently configured, is such a crude cut as to be essentially worthless. 

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