Our guest for this episode is Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). We discuss the NCTQ's surprising findings in their recent report,
A Fair Chance: Simple Steps to Strengthen and Diversify the Teacher Workforce. They found that the first-time pass rate for elementary teacher content exams is abysmally low: only 46 percent of candidates passed on their first try. We discuss possible explanations for the low pass rates as well as their effect on teacher diversity. [spp-player url=http://traffic.libsyn.com/voices4ed/24_-_Education_Post_-_Walsh_on_Diversiy_in_Teaching.mp3] [spp-tweet tweet="“Everybody’s trying to protect higher ed from being embarassed. This is a consumer protection issue: people who want to study to be a teacher have a right to this information and it’s being withheld.” – Kate Walsh"]
Episode Details:
- The most surprising results from the NCTQ report
- How colleges are failing to prepare teachers for the licensing exam
- Why Black and Hispanic examinees have even lower pass rates
- The complete lack of transparency in the reporting of pass rates
- Are there viable alternative routes to teacher certification?
Links Mentioned:
[spp-tweet tweet="“Two thirds of all elementary teachers will admit in government surveys that they don’t know their content well enough.” – Kate Walsh"]