Minority teacher candidates, according to the Globe Editors, are failing the Massachusetts Test of Educational Licensure (MTEL) because of teacher education. The Editors are frequently misinformed, and generally out-of-step with their own political philosophy, when it comes to their recommendations on educational policy. Blaming teacher education for the achievement gap on MTEL, however, demonstrates both a profound lack of knowledge about MTEL and an unfair, destructive bias toward teacher education.
Before claiming that “some colleges aren’t taking their teacher training role seriously enough,” the Editors might have considered the fact that teacher education programs must meet specific state standards for teacher education. The assignments we give and the grade we give take these standards into consideration.
In addition to state standards, many teacher education programs go the extra mile and earn accreditation from the more rigorous National Council for Accrediation of Teacher Education (NCATE). Not taking teacher training seriously is simply not an option from an accreditation point of view. It is a grueling process, which takes a few years.
If schools of education are indeed not taking their mission seriously enough, perhaps the state and NCATE should receive some of the criticism?
The Editors also don’t seem to realize that MTEL has nothing to do with education coursework. It is comprised of two components: 1) communication and literacy and 2) subject-matter. The C& L portion of the test features items dealing with reading and writing. One could argue that these basic skills are a responsibility for all college departments, but there is no logical reason to blame schools of education alone. Following the Editors uninformed reasoning, however, we would be blaming schools of education for the failure of English majors on the reading and writing portion of MTEL and the failure of chemistry majors on their subject matter test in chemistry.
It may also surprise the Editors to know that undergraduates no longer major in education. The Commonwealth requires a bachelor’s degree in the academic subject of prospective teachers. Furthermore, the state has established standards for each subject matter area. Advisers carefully help plan and review student transcripts to make sure they meet these standards.
Undergraduates typically earn a minor in education; their education coursework comprises pedagogy, educational law and psychology, and cultural diversity. Pre-service teachers spend less time in teacher education classes than their actual majors, yet inexplicably, the Editors believe that schools of education should be held accountable for the failure of minority teacher candidates on MTEL.
I have been involved both in the theory and practice of teacher preparation for the last four years as a doctoral student and teaching assistant at UMass-Amherst. I am also beginning my fifteenth year teaching high school English. I have worked with prospective secondary education teachers during every stage of their pre-service from introductory classes to student teaching, and I am, quite frankly, both puzzled and angered by the Editors ignorance and obvious prejudice. Everyone knows the old saying “Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach teachers.” Unfortunately, no one seems to know the changes that have been taking place that have made the saying obsolete.
Mark L. Bail
122 Easton Street
Granby, MA 01033
In her case, it was bachelor from U Mass in English then
graduate from Bridgewater State Teacher’s College..then three years of actual teaching while she pursued and earned a Masters Degree in Education from Lesley.
In her case, the State mandated that a teacher must obtain a Masters in Education within 5 years of beginning their teaching careers or lose State license. Is this still correct? or must they now obtain the Masters before beginning as teachers?
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I see your point that blaming the MTEL totally is not correct. However, it still begs the question of how can a prospective teacher after all the undergraduate school, teacher college,etc. do so poorly on the basics such as reading and writing ? How is one even considered for entrance to a Bridgewater State, for example, if they can’t read and write proficiently? How is one even considered to take the MTEL test without these basic skills?
Where is the system failing?
Partly because a Masters Degree doesn’t necessarily improve teaching perfomance. But it does generate customers for universities, so that’s one constituency who like the requirement.
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But there are workarounds to it. ETS or the College Board (the not-for-profits in NJ who have golf courses and 5-star hotels on their campuses–ever wonder what the SAT fee pays for?) have some kinda thing called National Board Certification, which costs about $3000.
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So if you do that option, you get to keep teaching past five years. But that Board Certification won’t bump your salary up as much as a Masters will. So that’s a decision a teacher has to make.
the connection between ETS and NBPTS is that ETS holds the contract to write and assess (i.e. grade) the teachers who seek National Board Certification.
Is that you have 5 years after receiving professional certification, which comes at your fourth year.
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Then you have five years to get a Master’s, but waivers are easy to apply for, and easy to get.
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And I would go one further than Joel and say that few things will hurt a teacher’s skill more than taking much seriously that they learn in a Master’s course.
And some of those people want to be teachers.
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I used to a be SAT teacher for the Princeton Review, a job I got because I already knew how to do well on standardized tests. It was eye-opening for me to meet so many students who didn’t interpret directions and questions the way I interpreted them. They get themselves stumped, and in general, they just needed some good test prep to help them not over-think items and have more confidence.
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But good test prep like Princeton Review is expensive. And lots of people don’t have the cultural background that makes testing easy for them.
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It might not be the best thing for the MTEL to be a high-stakes test. The state might want to us an assessment that compares college grades and MTEL, so that someone with a low MTEL but high grades could be considered for a license. Or better yet, the state could have someone actually observe the person teaching.
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You know, like when someone observes you driving around the block and parallel-parking to get your driver license.
From The New York Times:
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Mark, in past you’ve derided Globe editorial writers because they weren’t “professional educators.” (I think that’s silly — I’m not a professional soldier, but want to opine on military affairs).
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How about Levine? Is this guy entitled to an opinion? Or does his tenure running an Ed School, combined with his massive research study on all Ed Schools, still not qualify him to opine on these matters?
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At every meeting of Deval Patrick’s “Task Force” on education — there were maybe 40 people, representing pretty much every K-12 constituency, and of course with strongly opposing views on many matters — there was one constant: teacher quality is a huge issue.
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When you say “All is well here, move along” about teacher training, you’re standing alone….
How about the Globe editorial staff and the members of the State Legislature take the MTEL and then the pass/fail rate gets reported?
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What exactly would this prove? Are the editors of the Boston Globe claiming they are capable of passing the MTEL?
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Why not suggest they take the bar exam or the CPA exam?
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“However, it still begs the question of how can a prospective teacher after all the undergraduate school, teacher college,etc. do so poorly on the basics such as reading and writing ? How is one even considered for entrance to a Bridgewater State, for example, if they can’t read and write proficiently? How is one even considered to take the MTEL test without these basic skills?
Where is the system failing? “
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It would appear that all here are OK with mediocrity? That unqualified teachers are acceptable?
I for one ,would want someone competent, preferably with a master’s degree, teaching my child rather than someone who has problems reading, writing and speaking English that can’t pass a test that is viewed as a prerequisite to being licensed to teach in Massachusetts…. someone who has used “work arounds”
to dodge Massachusetts standards of teacher excellence
But just to be clear here, you are assuming that someone who gets a low score on the MTEL is unqualified to teach right?
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There probably are some teachers working now who are unqualified. (It’s a problem with a lot of career options, for example, the Presidency) The MTEL could be used to flag suspect prospective teachers. But we might do ourselves some harm by adopting the MTEL as a rigid standard. I can imagine certain situations, like say, having a Russian mathematics teacher immigrate to the U.S. who could be an excellent algebra, geometry, and calculus teacher but lack the skill to construct a five-paragraph essay on some bland topic within 30 minutes for the composition test. It would not be mediocrity to allow someone like that to teach. And given the shortage of math teachers in America, it might be a valid choice for a principal to hire such a teacher.
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As GGW’s comment above mentioned, there are education schools that have huge flaws in their curriculum and in the graduates they produce. I was not happy with most of the education courses I took at the University of Houston because they didn’t seem challenging (although Dr. Chiappetta’s science education course was very enlightening, and there were 2 others that were good, but about six that demanded not much effort). As a nation, we might want to shift our licensure process over to some sort of apprentice program, but that would cost a lot of universities a ton of tuition money, so that would be a prickly political issue. I don’t think my experience with an ed school was that rare. So while it is simplistic of the Globe to blame ed schools entirely for an achievement gap on MTEL, I’m not going to say that ed schools couldn’t stand to have their quality assurance system looked at.
T.O., you’d prefer someone with a master’s degree teaching your kid. I’ll admit, it sounds better that a teacher has an MA than a BA.
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But a Masters is not a guarantee that a person is a better communicator of ideas, nor a better classroom manager, nor a more empathetic mentor. Those three qualities are essential to excellent teaching. If excellent teaching is the state’s goal, it might want to think about how it could assure that. It is easy for a bureaucracy to say, “Earn this degree and you’re better qualified.” But the connection between those two things may not exist. Acknowledging that does not mean I’m OK with mediocrity. It means I’m interested in better criteria to assure quality teaching, rather than just accepting conventional wisdom about the pass/fail numbers generated by the MTEL.
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And by the way, the MTEL is really rather vague about just how much you have to know to pass it. They assign scores from 100 to 300, with 240 being passing–but how much of the test does a person have to get right? Really, with that scoring scale, is there any difference between a 235 and a 245? We don’t have the rubric, so it could be as scientific as Donald Trump rating a beauty contestant between 1 and 10. Using cut scores like this on test is problematic, because your results may vary.
Your “off the wall” example of some Russian math genius aside,let’s talk about the every day common variety teacher.. Again the question is can they read, write and speak English proficiently? Simple as that. My opinion is if they can’t, then they have no business being a teacher in the State of Massachusetts. The MTEL test is merely revealing that there is some kind of failure at the undergraduate level such that graduates can’t read, write and speak English at a level commensurate to have a job as a teacher in Massachusetts.
I know a retired kindergarten teacher, who was one of the best in the NYC school system, in one of the 5 best NYC public elementary schools, rated by professionals as well as parents who moved into her school district. Highly respected by her peers and her students’ parents – who asked her not to retire until their children were through the system.
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She is seriously dyslexic, doesn’t know how she learned to read. Barely made it through college. She does read, a lot, and speaks excellent English. Writing is very difficult for her, test taking worse. (Yes, she earned a Masters – from Bank Street – huge amount of agony.)
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Her dyslexia is part of why she is an excellent kindergarten teacher – she has many, many different ways for children in her classroom to learn about letters, and sounds, the beginnings of reading, writing, and arithmetic. She makes reading and writing worth doing. She has great empathy for her students, with all their various abilities. They come back to visit all the time.
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She retired, partly because she was fed up with the bureaucracy. She probably would have failed the test.
Again, the issue here is about ordinary, every day teachers and why there are so many failing a literacy test after having been through a college education.
she was once a beginning teacher who could not have passed that test. You would have never given her, or people like her, the chance to teach.
In spite of the significant flaws in our system of teacher education and the MTEL, I agree with your point:
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When I was in high school, seniors whose grades and SAT scores did not meet admission standards for the regular undergraduate program at the University of Michigan would sometimes apply instead to the U of M school of education, where the standards were lower. I don’t know if this was standard procedure at other Universities, but it may explain how some apparently underqualified teachers made their way into public school systems throughout the country.
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Many people at BMG probably remember the famous incident in which Dan Quayle incorrectly told a student that the correct spelling of “potato” is actually “potatoe.” It is my understanding that this incident came about because a teacher handed the V.P. a set of handmade flashcards in which she had misspelled the word, setting him up for his embarrassing, defining moment.
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I’m sure the MTEL came about as a way to address the problem of poorly-educated people become teachers.
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The problem with illiteracy (or unacceptably weak literacy) among college graduates is not limited to teacher candidates, however. I remember my dad as a guest judge throwing out a moot court contestant at U of M law school because his brief was riddled with errors in grammar and spelling. The bar should be set high for literacy among teachers (as it is in a de facto way for other professions, where you don’t retain your job or advance in your position if you can’t demonstrate competence), and the state and federal governments will probably have to pay more to attract and retain those skilled graduates.
Prospective teachers should pass the MTEL prior to enrolling in teacher education programs.
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See practice tests here.
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Assessments via exams are an important part of education. Someone who doesn’t do well in this area should consider another career. Or consider teaching a private school.
I took the Communication and Literacy MTEL in late 2005, and the “Middle School Humanities” (English and History) MTEL in 2006, passing each section on my first try. I will tell you some random bits of knowledge that helped me to pass these exams:
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– The essay for the English portion focused on a poem my mom had paid me and my brothers to memorize when I was about 13 years old.
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– The essay for the History portion asked about the causes of the Civil War, a topic that was fresh in my mind because I had just bought on eBay a ballot listing candidates of the Liberty Party as a gift for my brother who collects political ephemera. Out of curiousity, I had done some on-line research about the ballot and was thus ready to drop names and add details to my essay.
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– I had bought a paperback “Essentials of World History” to review for the test, but I had time to focus only on the Silk Road, an area I felt I had not adequately covered in my own schooling. Lucky for me, there were three geography questions on the MTEL using maps, asking me to identify countries in the Turkey/Iran/China area.
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In other words, I feel my success on this MTEL was somewhat random luck, arising out of my cultural background (I know that not many moms pay their kids to memorize poems) and a knowledge of how to cram for tests (I had bought a World Almanac years ago to prepare for an appearance on “Jeopardy”). Other factors: I was in my early 40s, had over twenty years of work experience, a bachelor’s degree from a Seven Sisters College and a Master’s degree (not in education).
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Some classmates in my teacher education program did not all fare as well in their attempts at the MTEL. One woman seemed to me like a good candidate for teaching, but test-taking skills were just not part of her make-up and she had failed the MTEL several times. One person seemed to me like a bad prospect for teaching, and I was relieved that this person had been held back (for awhile at least). Another couple of classmates had missed by a few points, and planned to retake the test. On the whole, I worry that the MTEL discourages some young people who might eventually mature to become good teachers. Others may pass the test and think they are hot stuff when, in fact, they are simply lucky or have skill with standardized tests but are not necessarily good teachers.
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Of the five teachers who were not invited back at my school last year, it is my understanding that problems with classroom management and other interpersonal skills were the biggest factors in their lack of success. The MTEL and definitions of a “highly qualified” teacher do not address this skill set at all. Frankly, a lot of people with skills in these areas do not choose to spend five days a week tangling with surly, moody adolescents, parents obsessed with grades (but not with cheating or with the quality of their child’s thought process) and with school bureaucracy.
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Mark Bail and (especially) joelpatterson have already made many of the points I would make about the system of preparing teachers. The state requires student teachers to prepare portfolios, but principals who came to speak to our education classes said they rarely take portfolios into consideration when hiring. I agree with joelpatterson’s suggestion:
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The state helped hospitals to create a career ladder for nurses a few years ago: employees with potential for growth and good work histories would be selected to work their way up and take courses on company time, progressing to LPN or RN. A similar system in the public schools would allow good candidates to progress from paraprofessional or clerical jobs to student teaching and full-time teaching positions, under the direction of experienced educators in a real-world setting. The pay scale, however, would have to make it worthwhile for people to stay with the system instead of going to law school or another profession where the salaries are higher and the frustrations lower.
which triggered this discussion?
Globe article
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It points to the old problem ( how many times have we seen this one before?)of “lower the bar for those who can’t meet the standards ” and move on down the road to mediocrity or also known as “Dumb it down” to be “fair”.
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This issue now has (what else but?) a Cambridge lawyer leading the charge to lower the standards. So what if a teacher can’t read, write and speak English. Isn’t being politically correct far more important? Let the dumming down begin!
You want every teacher in Mass to have such thorough writing and reading skills in English that they would pass the MTEL. If they don’t pass muster, toss ’em out of the system.
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It’s analogous to a customer shopping for apples. Any apples that aren’t shiny enough, firm enough, or smell a little off do not make it into your basket.
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This might be a workable paradigm for education in America if hordes of college graduates in math and science were demanding to teach in our schools.
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But they aren’t. And those teaching positions have to be filled by Labor Day.
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If you’re good at math or science, I would encourage you to become a teacher. We need you badly. We don’t have the supply to meet the demand.
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So, until we do have that supply, principals will need to hire a few exceptional cases, like say a Russian immigrant whose English isn’t so great. Or a dyslexic elementary teacher with excellent empathy & classroom management. And then the principals can hope that in between the meetings they have to conduct with other officials they can help develop their hires into better teachers.
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The government can make all the hard and fast rules it likes about these requirements. That won’t address the supply problem.
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And about your little “politically correct” snark about Cambridge… I live in a city chock full of immigrants who came here to get the American dream. I’ve taught immigrant kids here, in Seattle and in Houston. I grew up in a county with no immigrants in the middle of northern Arkansas. I have observed many cultural differences among intelligent people both white and non-white; rural and urban; rich, poor and middle-class. It is a mistake to think that because someone doesn’t know that Dow Jones Industrial Average must be capitalized, that they don’t possess the English skills to teach. And that Cambridge lawyer is to be commended for drawing attention to the issue of cultural differences making MTEL results inaccurate.
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If Massachusetts is going to have an education system that provides a good education to ALL its kids, we need advocates to draw attention to the quiet prejudice in culturally biased tests. (partly because we’ve made tests so important)
I forgot to close of the link after “Average.” Sorry.
I am merely saying that if a prospective teacher doesn’t measure up to the standards established by the State to be a Massachusetts licensed teacher then they should consider another profession. The alternative, of course, as you advocate is to lower the standards to have a sufficient amount of teachers who are not proficient in English and can not pass the MTEL test in the name of staffing the system.
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As to the ‘supply” problem? Let there be a true shortage of “qualified” teachers and then let the tax payers decide if they want to pay for certified educators teaching their children or teacher/midwives with substandard qualifications. Unfortunately , they would probably opt in favor of their wallets and approve a giant step down the ladder of excellence towards mediocrity .
C’est la vie… sign of the times, I guess.
I’d like to know when we’re going to start paying teachers a high enough salary to make it worth their while to go through the education, testing, certification, re-certification, and re-training required of them, never mind the sometimes very difficult situations in which they work. Oh, and never mind the out-of-pocket money they contribute to cover gaps in school supplies, books, and snacks for kids who can’t bring food to school.
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Higher pay might attract more teaching candidates with top educational backgrounds. Not that that is necessarily the best thing. Teaching, among other professions, is about far more than just “book smarts.”
I find myself forced to agree with TO that the long-term “solution” will be lowering standards, simply because the infrastructure isn’t in place to raise teacher pay to attract the number and quality candidates needed to teach math and science.
I don’t disagree with you. But I’m tired of people bashing teachers as underperforming when there’s a structural, compensation-related reason for the underperformance of some teachers. (Let’s not forget the faceless majority of teachers who DO meet the standards.) How many other fields would pass a similar barrage of exams and certifications with flying colors?? Why do teachers have to get re-certified when people in the vast majority of other fields don’t, including some that have life-or-death responsibility on a daily basis?
How many professions would not suffer massive personnel loss upon announcing that “lifetime certificates” were now subject to constant re-evaluation?
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Trust me, I agree that teachers do get a raw deal, as do so many workers. I just can’t imagine there being a major movement to raise pay.*
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*Unless we get a president or governor who actually knows something about education. Given our current incumbents and front-runners, that appears unlikely.
Perhaps you’re missing the point, that being that being a “certified and licensed” teacher in the State of Massachusetts is quite a prestigious accomplishment and should not be diminished or “watered down” by the admission of sub-standard members to the profession. As soon as you do that a “teaching certificate” in Massachusetts takes a step closer in value to one from a Mississippi or some other State with a low acedemic reputation.
Qualified teachers are grossly under compensated when the difficulty of the work and the educational credentials ( and the personal expense to acquire them)are considered.
Education of the young’ns is a cooperative effort among at least four groups: the management (the superintendents, principals, textbook suppliers, and so forth), the teachers, the students and the parents of the students. It is mostly the teachers who get beaten on for failure in public schools, but if the parents do not motivate the students to do their homework, there is nothing that the teachers can do to force them to.
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When I was in HS in the mid 1960s, my parents would read me the riot act if I did not do my homework. They would not have blamed to teachers for my not learning, they would have blamed me. This silliness of blaming the teachers alone has got to stop. As an aside, my administrative assistant at my last corporate job when back to school (college). She was petrified of her required algebra course. I advised her to practice. Solve lots and lots of problems–the homework. It worked for me in calculus in HS, and it worked for her, too, in college algebra. The reason that it works is obvious: it gets one comfortable with the subject matter
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It is highly unlikely that the educational problem that you are seeing is with the teachers. The problem is with unmotivated students and the parents who refuse to motivate them by making them do homework.
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It’s actually even worse than that. There have been reports in recent years (yes, in Massachusetts) of parents complaining to the management (principals, and so forth) about the teachers marking down their children for poor performance, and the management backing up the parents. That is totally absurd. If I were a teacher who had been called on the carpet after experiencing something like that, I’d throw my hands in the air, and say, if you (the management) don’t care about academic standards, then why should I? And I am quite serious about that. And I’m not even a teacher.
This thread is about the MTEL, so it should come as no surprise comments are focused on teachers. This does not mean the other three groups you identified are beyond reproach.
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However, I must address your point about parents and your assumption that they are responsible for having their children complete homework. If a student isn’t completing homework, reasons could be (and here I’m focusing only on those reasons that involve parents… there are certainly others):
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– English is not spoken or read at home
– Parent is not home
– Parent does not have enough knowledge to assist with homework
– Parent has no control over any aspect of child’s behavior
– Parent doesn’t care about school performance
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It is up to the teacher to address the fact that homework isn’t done, regardless of the underlying cause. Yes, management plays an important part in this. But, if a teacher keeps assigning homework to a student or class of students who don’t do homework, it’s like blaming the dog for barking. These kids don’t do homework — come up with something else, or you will surely have no option but to watch them fail.
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I speak from experience, having taught in both urban and suburban districts. It’s called dealing with reality, and there are ways to do it and be extremely effective.
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I’ll leave with this quote from Zig Englemann:
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“The philosophy behind the program is basically simple. We say in effect, ?Kid, it doesn?t matter how miserably your environment has failed to teach you the basic concepts that an average five-year-old has long since mastered. We?re not going to fail you. We?re not going to discriminate against you, or give up on you, regardless of how unready you may be according to traditional standards.
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We are not going to label you with a handle such as dyslexic or disadvantaged or brain damaged and feel that we have now exonerated ourselves from the responsibility of teaching you. We?re not going to punish you by requiring you to do things you can?t do.
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We?re not going to talk about your difficulties to learn. Rather, we will take you where you are, and we will teach you. And the extent to which we fail is our failure, not yours. We will not cop out by saying, ?He can?t learn.? Rather we will say, ?I failed to teach him. So I better take a good look at what I did and try to figure out a better way.?