Thursday, July 12, 2012

Cheating on Tests Again

Joanne Jacobs has:
Aspiring teachers paid a Memphis school official to find substitutes to take a teacher certification exam, prosecutors charge. Clarence Mumford, 58, is accused of charging $1,500 to $3,000 per test. The scam involved at least 50 teachers and would-be teachers required to pass the PRAXIS in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas from 1995 to 2010, according to the indictment.
Really? The PRAXIS test is really easy.  The English one has simple grammar and a writing test that a chipmunk couldn't pass but only because the chipmunk can't type. The math test has decimal place-value questions and fractions. Every one of those teachers should be immediately fired.

After taking the test and passing it, they can take their place in the new-hires whirlwind.

The Math PRAXIS 2 is pre-calculus.  If you can't pass that, you shouldn't be teaching math ... and a case could be made for middle and elementary school, too.  Teachers shouldn't be the stupidest ones in the school.

3 comments:

  1. I agree and yet we have teachers in our school who failed the Praxis repeatedly - and finally passed when Georgia went to an even EASIER test, the GACE. One I know failed the Praxis 5 times = and several failed it twice. And yet, sincve they passed the GACE, they teach.

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  2. I remember taking the Praxis I; I engaged in conversation with a fellow waiting student who had to retake the math portion. She was on her fifth attempt.

    When I left, having completed all sections, she was still plugging away on her calculator.

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  3. I feel as if i should attack the idea of using standardized "high stakes" tests as a way to evaluate potential teachers. Unfortunately all of the ones that I know that had to retake it really are awful teachers.

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