Knowing that a teacher understands content at this level of sophistication requires a much more elaborate form of assessment. Second, since the typical form of testing does not give us the type of information we need to determine a teacher's in-depth knowledge, it is not surprising then that there is no relationship between success on teacher tests and classroom performance of teachers. A high score on the test does not mean the person will be a good teacher. I was told that no testing company would make that claim. Still, with no proven relationship between test success and classroom performance, the data are often reported as though there were some real value.
States report their test data with either great glee or great disdain, depending on the results.
A 1998 bill passed by the U.S. Congress requires states that impose testing as a condition of teacher licensure to report that data to the U.S. Secretary of Education. The states are also required to rank their teacher education programs from top to bottom based on those test scores, a misuse of test data that in effect has no meaning. Iowa, as a non-testing state, is working to avoid this requirement. What is needed, of course, is a much more sophisticated form of assessment that provides a level of confidence that a teacher can perform well in the classroom. At the University of Northern Iowa we are working on two initiatives to provide us with that confidence.