Teacher Retesting May Encounter Serious Obstacles

By Yamil Berard, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Aug. 27–Carrie Dupire, 30, will take a battery of tests this fall that are the final step to becoming a licensed public school teacher.

If Dupire passes, she’s a licensed teacher for life. For Texas educators, the examination is a one-shot deal. Should it be? Some advocacy groups say states need to take another look at licensing requirements. And some states are toughening exams and retesting educators to make sure they are up to date on the techniques of teaching and the material in the curriculum.

Texas has been revising teacher tests for those reasons. Educators say that gives parents assurance that their child’s teacher is expected to perform at a high level.

However, teachers who passed earlier exams don’t have to take the newer, more rigorous versions. The Texas Education Agency says there has been no discussion about retesting teachers. Teachers would strongly oppose such a move, teacher groups say.

Some veteran teachers take offense at the idea of being subjected to additional tests.

“I think there’s a lot of resentment,” said Jacqueline Echols, an Advanced Placement U.S. history teacher at Martin High School in Arlington. “I don’t think most teachers feel like they have to be proving themselves over and over again.”

“The proof is your kids’ performance,” the 18-year classroom veteran said.

But retesting makes sense to Dupire, a University of Texas at Arlington senior who will take exams to teach math and science in fourth through eighth grades. Retesting could prove that she’s still “got it” in the classroom, she said.

“If we demand it of the kids, why shouldn’t we do it?” she asked, comparing the testing to state exams students must take.

Some teachers are having to go back to square one because of the federal No Child Left Behind law. Until recently, special-education high school teachers of math, science, social studies and English needed to be licensed only in special education. Bilingual teachers had a similar requirement.

Now those teachers must pass a test and have a license for each subject they teach.

“It’s a huge task, I will tell you,” said Suzy Compton, coordinator for personnel services with the Birdville school district, which is using federal dollars to pay for a portion of the test costs and training.

The Fort Worth school district is working to get teachers up to speed on the requirement, said JoAnn Muldrew, assistant director of certification and records.

“We want to make sure that they are covered,” she said.

A few states require additional tests for all teachers. New Mexico’s “tiered” licensing system, for example, requires teachers to acquire more-advanced licenses as they gain more experience.

Texas, which was a leader in education reform, has focused so much in recent years on attracting enough teachers that it has fallen behind on ways to improve the quality of educators already in the profession, said Richard Kouri, spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, with 65,000 members.

“Things got off track, and we haven’t gotten back on track,” he said.

Almost 14 percent of Texas teachers aren’t certified to teach what they are teaching, Kouri said. That’s about 43,000 teachers, according to the Texas Education Agency.

Those special licenses were developed to handle teaching shortages in the last decade. At the same time, “these were ways to avoid talking about making sure we had qualified, certified teachers in the classroom,” he said.

Kouri says strengthening professional development sessions is key to teacher quality. Teachers must log 150 hours of professional development each five years to retain a license. Peggy Malone, program director for the state’s Education Service Center in Fort Worth, also sees training as a solution.

“That’s a mechanism to always seek improvement in teacher quality,” she said.

The Texas Association of Professional Educators, with 108,000 members, encourages teachers to obtain advanced degrees to improve.

To Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council on Teacher Quality in Washington, D.C., retesting teachers would be an optimal way. “You want to know that your doctor is aware of the most current information; the same thing with teachers,” she said.

The nonprofit council has researched what states are doing to improve teacher quality. One step Jacobs recommends is that states tailor licensing requirements to their priorities. Some states have reading initiatives, for example, and could develop exams based on the latest research on reading instruction.

It’s unclear how teachers’ test scores relate to classroom performance, said Patty Motlagh, assistant dean for teacher certification and testing at UT-Arlington.

But, Malone said, “a good teacher makes all the difference in the world.”

TESTING TEACHERS

Texas teachers must pass certification tests. Below are the Tarrant County-area campuses where teacher averages were highest as of the 2005-06 school year. Because the state changed tests in 2002, there are two lists for every category.

Highest elementary scores, pre-2002 test

State average: 78.2

Rank School District Score 1 Bellaire Hurst-Euless-Bedford 90.2 2 Waverly Park Fort Worth 86.4 3 Carlson Applied Learning Fort Worth 84.1 4 Wood Arlington 83.8 5 James A. Arthur Int Kennedale 83.8 6 Glenhope Grapevine-Colleyville 83.7 7 Butler Arlington 83.6 8 Hurst Hills H-E-B 83.6 9 Donna Park H-E-B 83.4 10 W.T. Francisco Birdville 83.4

Highest elementary scores, post-2002 test

State average: 256.9

Rank School District Score 1 Samuel Beck Northwest 281.0 2 Carlson Applied Learning Fort Worth 280.0 3 Florence Keller 278.1 4 Glenhope Grapevine-Colleyville 276.8 5 Park Glen Keller 276.4 6 Silver Lake Grapevine-Colleyville 275.8 7 Washington Heights Fort Worth 274.8 8 Deer Creek Crowley 274.7 9 Como Montessori Fort Worth 274.6 10 Richland Birdville 274.3

Highest middle/high school scores, pre-2002 test

State average: 78.2

Rank School District Score 1 O.D. Wyatt H.S. Fort Worth 83.0 2 Brooks Wester Middle Mansfield 82.9 3 Trinity H.S. H-E-B 82.4 4 Rogene Worley Middle Mansfield 82.1 5 Colleyville Heritage H.S. Grapevine-Colleyville 81.7 6 Seguin H.S. Arlington 81.6 7 Bell H.S. H-E-B 81.6 8 Colleyville Middle Grapevine-Colleyville 81.6 9 North Richland Middle Birdville 81.6 10 Cross Timbers Middle Grapevine-Colleyville 81.4

Highest junior high/high school scores, post-2002 test

State average: 256.9

Rank School District Score 1 George Dawson Middle Carroll 270.1 2 Cross Timbers Middle Grapevine-Colleyville 269.7 3 Monnig Middle Fort Worth 266.2 4 Bell H.S. H-E-B 266.1 5 Martin H.S. Arlington 265.7 6 Workman J.H. Arlington 264.9 7 Colleyville Heritage H.S. Grapevine-Colleyville 264.5 8 T.A. Howard Middle Mansfield 264.4 9 Aledo High School Aledo 264.1 10 Ferguson J.H. Arlington 264.0

Source: Texas Education Agency

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Yamil Berard, 817-390-7239 yberard@star-telegram.com

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