NEW YORK PREFERS DIVERSITY OVER LITERACY SKILLS
I'm not sure if you have heard about this yet, but I just learned about it a few moments ago.
Recently, there was an attempt to require an Academic Literacy Test for teachers in New York. Basically, it appears that a certain minimum level of reading and writing skills were attempted to be required in order for someone to be a teacher in New York. However, because potential teachers from certain ethnic backgrounds had trouble passing the tests, they determined that having diversity in the occupation of teachers was more important than the skills tested in the Academic Literacy Test.
Personally, I am not sure what all was included in the test, but if the goal was a certain level of reading and writing skills, which are more remedial skills, this should probably be viewed as a disaster. Opinions about the “public” school system in general and whether or not it is even constitutional vary, but this should show some of the problems within that system, regardless of what else one thinks about it.
In a day and age where we claim the equality of all people regardless of ethnicity, we once again see evidence of people making decisions based solely on that factor. I consider this to be a huge failure that is growing all the more common these days, but that’s just my opinion.
In essence, the message sent seems to be “it is more important to us what shade your skin tone is rather than if you can actually fulfill the job requirements.” If it wasn’t for the fact that a whole generation of young people will be severely affected by this, perhaps it wouldn’t be as bad.
Here are a few quotes from other sources on this issue.
Citing the fact that an outsized percentage of black and Hispanic candidates were failing the test, members of the New York state Board of Regents plans to adopt a task force's recommendation to eliminate the literacy exam, known as the Academic Literacy Skills Test, given to prospective teachers.
The move to do away with the test has been met with mixed reviews. Supporters of the exam say that eliminating it could put weak teachers in the classroom, while critics argue the test is confusing, redundant and a poor predictor of who will succeed as a teacher.
"We want high standards, without a doubt. Not every given test is going to get us there," said Leslie Soodak, a professor of education at Pace University who served on the task force that examined the state's teacher certification tests.
The state’s Board of Regents is expected to ditch the Academic Literacy Skills Test in part because black and Hispanic teaching candidates struggled to pass the exam, according to the AP.
Just 41 percent of black teaching candidates and 46 percent of Hispanics passed the test on their first try, compared to 64 percent of white candidates.
The multiple choice exam is meant to ensure high standards among prospective teachers, which many teaching preparation programs have struggled to do.
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I am techer
LOL!
This kind of post drives me nuts, @papa-pepper. You heard something on the radio and grabbed a couple sources that have poor credibility just like @gardenlady commented. I went to the links given in those sources. Some links went to junk sites, with no news at all. Other links went to other stories from the same source, the Daily Caller - not a good practice for getting information. The Associated Press article in one link appeared in a lot of papers, as pretty much the same story linked in @gardenlady's second comment. All the links referenced a report by the National Council on Teacher Quality. I read all those links, including the NCTQ report and then different perspectives about that report. Here's my take on it.
Not all tests are good tests. Over several years of evaluation, scores from this test were not correlated with actual student outcomes - the one metric that matters for students. Test biases are real, so are poor tests. Why require poorly written tests that don't correlate with actual student outcomes?
The primary source for the comments in these news reports were people from the National Council on Teacher Quality. Their reviews of teacher education are not valid. They are based on incredibly incomplete online reviews of education programs. For example, one of their 5 key metrics is whether a teacher training program requires incoming students to be in the top half of their high school graduating class or have SAT scores in the top half of test results. But that's a meaningless metric. Stanford gets a failing grade on this score because they don't have any requirement like this. But Stanford doesn't have to -- they get some of the best students in the world without having that requirement at all.
I'm interested in this topic. I care about education of kids and their teachers. I took the time to read your post and follow it through. It took real time and attention to figure out your post was sensationalistic and encourages confirmation bias by folks not willing to dig into the information. You didn't just make a post about something you found interesting -- you presented a point of view with this story. Is there a reason why did you choose this point of view that denigrates minorities and makes fun of teachers?
My point was that this concept is racist, as the article that gardenlady shared showed. When something is done away with partially because of how it affects minorities or decisions made because a white workforce doesn't match the student body, it seems that the only factor taken into consideration is skin tone, which is racism.
That's the point I'm trying to make -- that the articles you are sourcing didn't represent why the tests were being done away with. The tests are being done away with because they are tests that don't measure the ability of teachers to ultimately teach. Once I went past the links you provided, digging deeper to the more primary sources, the tone of the story became quite different. Biased tests do exist. Poorly constructed tests do exist. Tests that fail to measure what they are trying to measure do exist. This test, from the other sources of information, falls into all those categories. So the basis of the claim of racism isn't really supported by the primary sources.
Oh, I see.
I'm sorry if my opinion on the matter offends you, but it's my opinion, and I am free to share it.
I'm not offended at all by your opinion or anyone's opinion. It's the quick post using low credibility sources, presented as the whole story, that frustrates me. There was so much more to this story - about the test itself and about the group quoted at length in the story. I went to a lot of effort to really get a more balanced view of the information behind the story, from multiple sources. That's my issue, not your opinion, for sure.
Ok, I checked multiple sources, all of which agreed with what I heard, and cited a few. I think there is always more to the story and wasn't trying be exhaustive, just to share my thoughts about what I had encountered.
Wow... that's all I can say.
I know, very interesting times that we live in.
That's for sure. I can't help but fear for my children, as I am sure you do, too.
Indeed, they will have to be strong and be able to discern in the days ahead.
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The last time I went to the emergency room in NYC my doctor did not even speak english!
Wow! Did it at least work out for you OK?
I got the hell out of there as fast as i could.., and went to a smaller clinic type of place. At least we spoke the same language. I am so ready to get the hell out of NYC!!!
Wow, I was born and raised in Rochester and my teachers were amazing. I can't imagine how dim the future will be.
This is certainly not a good sign.
I'm in the NY area and I am not familiar with this issue as it relates to NYC, but I have a problem with the source...the Daily Caller is Tucker Carlson's of fox news, and frankly, he's not one I would attribute one iota of credibility to.
This article is race based but the topic is not. The author is assuming the fluent English speaking teachers are the victims of a multicultural political correctness agenda and that students will be deprived a proper education as the result of loosening up regulations for teachers to gain employment.
Let's be clear immediately, finding an African American person in New York who actually wants to be a teacher but can't pass a basic literacy test would be like finding a unicorn. So this issue is not about the black community. This issue applies to New York City which means it most specifically applies to immigrants who have high levels of technical education and lower English proficiency levels. The only fluent English speakers losing teaching jobs to these individuals are those with low levels of technical proficiency. These individual in New York of of all complexions.
Case in point. This guy is a genius and I would be honored to be a student in his class, but there is no way in hell, he is passing that literacy test.
Yeah, I just heard this on the radio, but looked it up online. A lot of info was there about it, and I just grabbed two of the sources to quote. You can look it up too. Tell me if you find out differently.
Definitely the optics aren't good based on the headlines. But here's an analysis that is more balanced:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/2183609-New-York-removes-test-for-screening-teachers-because-blacks-hispanics-can-t-pass-it
Minority teachers didn't do well, but neither did the white teachers. But it was just one test of a battery of assessments.
In the end, good or bad, I don't know since I am not in the teaching business, but I think a lot of news outlets like to put out the inflammatory headlines ;-)
They sure do, and they skew it however they want to. I'm just tired of them always trying to divide and make things a "race" issue. Thanks @gardenlady!
Also, for a "more balanced" article, the title seems to be about the same as the others... oh, the media!
I know. I guess it goes to show how headlines grab attention. SO often there is way more to any given subject in the body of an article.
Perpetuating the status quo trumps progress in monopolies.
Often that is the case.
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This is an interesting response to the problem.
Black and Hispanic teachers are not passing the exam so let's scrap the exam.
How about finding out why they are not passing the exam and giving them the help they need to pass?
There seems to be no human element to this sort of thing. It's all about numbers expressed in reports.
Teaching is a hard job, and good teachers are very rare. I know this from my many years as a teacher. If you have minorities that are willing to step into the roll, but are lacking in certain skills, you upskill them. that just makes sense.
You don't take away the requirement for skill. That helps nobody - expect those that need to fill quotas to get their bonuses.
Right, the other approach just seems to be making a larger problem.
Yup.
See, take you for instance. You would be an awesome teacher. You have the energy and you are interesting. You would easily be a classes favourite teacher.
I'm not suggesting for a moment that you would fail the literacy exam (you would ace it easily), but if that was all that was holing you back, wouldn't it be better for the students to give you the training you need to get you into the job where you could do so much good?
This just seems very short-sighted to me. Good teachers are about passion and an ability to connect with kids and inspire them. It doesn't matter what colour you are, or what ethnicity you are.
When I was working in a local high school we had a Maori maths teacher who was just amazing. She could take a class of disruptive problem children who didn't really want to do maths and get them excited about the subject.
I loved being in her class and seeing how she inspired the kids. Her English skills were not so hot, but that was not what she was there for.
Maybe the solution is for the guys making the decisions to get out of their offices and go into the schools and see what sort of people are needed and build their criteria around that.