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New testing standards for Iowa teachers: Your take
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Classroom. (MGN)
Prospective educators will have to score in the 25th percentile on a pair of national tests if they want to teach in an Iowa classroom under rules approved Wednesday by the Iowa State Board of Education.
The new rules, which take effect for students who will graduate in spring 2013, come about as part of the education reform package passed by the Legislature earlier this year.
“There are some minimum responsibilities that need to be had by the teacher, namely being that you have a fairly minimal level of achievement in both your pedagogy and also in the content area that you’re in,” said Mike Cormack, a legislative liaison with the department. “This one is a 25-percentile standard, nationally, so potentially, every Iowa teacher could pass it. It’s not being compared to other Iowa teachers.”
What do you think of the new teacher testing standards? Is the 25th-percentile threshold appropriate?
Standardized tests test how well people do on standardized tests. There is no way for them to assess the intangibles that make for a good student, a good teacher, a decent human being.
It’s just another hoop to jump through benefiting no one except the corporations that come up with these these tests and process them