Report Sees Substantial Improvement in Teacher
Quality
Teachers entering the field are more academically qualified
today than they were a decade ago, according to a new
report by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Policy
Information Center issued in December 2007. Teacher
Quality in a Changing Policy Landscape: Improvements
in the Teacher Pool attributes this trend to
a number of policy changes at the federal, state, and
local levels which have focused on teacher quality.
The study recommends a new type of federal-state partnership
to set common goals and standards in this area for all
the states.
These findings are significant, since, as Congressman
George D. Miller, Chair of the House Education and Labor
Committee, has noted, “the most important single
factor in determining a child’s success in school
is the quality of his or her teacher.” President
and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for
Teacher Education, Sharon P. Robinson, says the study
“should inspire optimism and encourage all of
us to recommit to the goal of providing every student
with caring and competent teachers in schools organized
for success.”
Methodologies and Findings
The report looked at the academic profiles of 153,000
prospective teachers that took ETS’ Praxis II
test in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Praxis
II tests measure knowledge of specific subjects taught
by K-12 educators, and they are part of the teacher
licensing and certification process required by many
states. The report compared Grade Point Averages and
SAT scores of test-takers in two periods: from 1994-1997
and from 2002-2005. Results showed that individuals
in the second period had stronger grades and higher
SAT scores than individuals in the earlier period. The
report found improvements to be consistent across genders
and racial/ethnic groups. Also, the report showed that
teachers who used alternative routes to certification
and those who used traditional programs demonstrated
equally strong gains over the earlier test-takers.
Drew Gitomer, author of the report, says "seldom
have changes in education policies had such a positive
impact in so short a time." He attributes this
success to the variety of strategies aimed toward the
common objective of teacher quality. Yet, according
to Bess Keller, assistant editor for Education Week,
some teacher experts say the report is “credible
and significant, but not cause for resting on laurels.”
Gitomer also acknowledges that “more work remains
to be done.” He acknowledges that “one of
the sobering findings of the report is that the teacher
candidate pool is no more diverse than it was a decade
ago.” The report finds that American teachers
are overwhelmingly white and female. It also finds that
there is a lack of language diversity in the teaching
pool, despite the changing composition of American classrooms.
Though he assures that “requiring higher scores
on the Praxis test…did not decrease the proportion
of minority candidates,” Gitomer says “the
nation is failing to develop a teaching force that in
any way mirrors the changing demographics in this country.”
Moreover, the academic profiles of elementary school,
special education, and physical education teacher candidates
remained noticeably lower than the profiles of high
school teacher candidates.
Limitations
Gitomer also acknowledges some limitations of the report’s
data. He notes that praxis test-takers do not all go
on to teach, and that California, Florida, New York,
and Texas, the four most populous states, do not use
the test at all. Some critics also question the significance
of the report. Harvard professor of education and economics,
Thomas J. Kane, claims assessing performance on the
job is more effective than recruiting academically stronger
teachers because academic records might not closely
correlate with teacher effectiveness.
On a similar note, Sandi Jacobs, vice president for
policy at the National Council on Teacher Quality, is
bewildered by the attention given to the report, which
she refers to as “a drop in the bucket in terms
of raising the quality of the teacher pool.” Her
statements reflect a marked concern that the good news
might stall policymakers’ efforts. Yet, Gitomer
says “it’s OK to celebrate sometimes,”
especially when something seems to be improving –
like the new pool of teacher candidates.
Prepared by Marcela Briceno, December 17, 2007
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