All but a few states require prospective teachers to take licensing exams. This week, Education World writer Glori Chaika explores the politically polarized issue of teacher testing.
Many states already require prospective teachers to pass licensing exams.
The state of Washington has just joined the growing list. When 59 percent of the prospective teachers in Massachusetts failed that state's exam, however, other states, finding many aspects of such testing troubling, began to wonder just how well the tests themselves measure up. Folks who are academically weak shouldn't be teaching in the first place, though. A 1998 Education Trust study found that teacher quality was the single most-important factor in student achievement. In North Carolina, Education Trust researchers predict the number of students who pass the state's competency test would rise by 5 percent if the passing score on the licensing exam for teachers was raised 1 percent.