Regarding NCTQs exit standards, why do you suggest that passing licensing tests isn sufficient to ensure that teacher candidates “know their stuff”?
Both basic skills tests and content tests used for state licensing have many weaknesses. First, the basic skills are too easy (testing elementary and middle school level proficiency) and may not be required until after program completion, meaning that programs devote valuable time to remediating teacher candidates who are deficient. Content tests can be deficient both substantively and structurally. At the elementary level, the tests used for licensing are too easy to pass. At all levels, subjects are tested together and do not have separate passing score requirements. (For example, the typical elementary content test includes reading pedagogy, English/language arts, science, social studies and mathematics, and the typical middle and high school social studies tests cover history, government, geography and economics.) This allows a high score in one subject area to compensate for a low score in another. At the elementary school level, one result is that candidates who have little to no
