IS OUR TEACHERS LEARNED?

Education Effort Meets Resistance: Leaders Say Teacher Certification Test Was Sabotaged (Jay Mathews, June 10, 2003, Washington Post)

Leaders of an effort backed by the Bush administration to accelerate and improve teacher training say they have met with considerable resistance from organizations allied with teachers unions and education schools, including the sabotage of a proposed new teacher certification test.

The leaking of test questions, which the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence said led it to cancel a $1.2 million agreement with the testing company ACT Inc., marks the latest battle in a long war between the new organization and several established education groups. Those groups dispute the administration's contention that education schools are not doing a good job of producing qualified teachers.

Besides trying to develop a new way for college graduates to become certified teachers, the board wants to award a special Master Teacher certificate to experienced teachers based on a measurement of student improvement in their classes. That would put the board in competition with an organization supported by teachers unions, the Arlington-based National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, which grants national certificates to teachers based on their knowledge and skills, as assessed by experts.

Perhaps if they spend their time sabotaging the tests they'll have less time for what they usually do, sabotage the students. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 11, 2003 8:28 AM