We are all familiar with the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, a state-mandated examination that can determine a student’s eligibility for graduation from a Texas public high school.
Then there are the much-dreaded end-of-course exams that some schools have individually implemented as tougher academic challenges to students.
But is the training of educators sufficient to meet the needs posed by these tests in the classroom?
A preliminary study conducted by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonpartisan research and reform advocacy group based in Washington, suggests it is not.
‘(The group) has graded each of the 67 college-based teacher programs in Texas,’ Houston Chronicle reporter Ericka Mellon said in a Nov. 23 article.
The programs were judged according to performance in certain areas. Among them were admission standards, course requirements, the quality of preparation teachers receive and the quality of faculty.
‘We don’t know for sure, but the preliminary ratings were good,’ Kate Walsh, president of the council, said.
‘The council is awaiting responses from more deans – most of whom have ignored its requests – before publishing the report,’ Mellon said.
How can a genuine analysis of the condition of Texas public education be reached with such gaping holes in the research?
‘(Walsh) emphasized that the findings could change based on additional data provided by the education deans,’ Mellon said.
It seems as if the council is making premature decisions based on incomplete data, which doesn’t benefit anyone.
College of Education Dean Bob Wimpelberg said the study was ‘flawed,’ and called the council ‘one more national group to just lay on more criticism. We simply reject the report.’
Michael Rosato, president of the Texas Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, ‘blasted the study’s research methods,’ Mellon said.
‘Rosato ‘hellip; is bothered the council didn’t ask the colleges if they wanted to be included in the study.’
Rosato said, ‘The organization was not forthright in their intentions, and it’s shocking that the council would use methods that are not even considered to be best practice.’
Even more troubling is the exclusion of several other important groups. This allegedly thorough examination of public education failed to even consider feedback and criticisms from the ones who are almost certainly the most involved in the classroom: the teachers.
Conventional wisdom would certainly suggest that they be one of the first groups to be surveyed in order to determine if training was appropriate.
In order to maintain integrity and not drive teachers to claim adequate training (which may have not been the case), surveys could have been conducted anonymously.
Then there is the lack of parental discretion and feedback. Among this group are feelings stronger than those reflected in the general public. After all, is it not usually the parents who pay taxes to run public education and pay the teachers employed by the system? Valuable stances on the issue of teacher training are not heard, though in some instances can change the results of the study entirely.
But most importantly, it is crucial to remember that the council is a reform group. As such, it will simply serve the purpose of pointing out flaws. Rarely, if ever, does a reform group point out what is right with an institution or with a system of public education. It is simply not in a reform group’s nature.
Patrick Levy is a communication freshman and may be reached at [email protected]
