Deborah Loewenberg Ball was recently interviewed by Cynthia Canty, host of Michigan Radio’s Stateside program, about the problems facing would-be teachers who are struggling with teacher certification tests.
“We’re creating a false threshold or barrier to get people into teaching,” Ball said. “If we test on things that are not the important kind of skills and knowledge they need, then we’re going to artificially exclude people from the profession at a time when we most need really skilled teachers.”
Ball emphasized assessing the wrong skills is one of the fundamental flaws of teacher certification tests in Michigan. “We don’t actually have a test that looks at whether they can explain content to children, whether they can manage a classroom, whether they can talk sensibly to parents, and that is the direction of the profession, assessing people on the actual skills they need to be good beginning teachers.”
Listen to the full interview here.