Tests in Pa. hinder African-Americans who want to teach
Minority students finding entry to teacher prep programs blocked by tests
SOURCE/WWW.LINCOLN.EDU Lincoln University phased out its undergraduate education program, in part, because not enough students were passing the PAPA test.
With two educators as parents, 22-year-old Gyasi Blanton always knew that he wanted to follow in their footsteps.
"I see the passion that they had to teach and that passion was instilled in me,” he said. “I don't see myself doing anything else but teaching."
05262015_GyasiBlanton_TwitterBefore he could even get into a teacher preparation program, however, Blanton, left, had a major hurdle to overcome: a standardized basic skills test in reading, writing, and math. Without passing the test, he couldn’t take 300-level classes at Lincoln University, a historically black college in southern Chester County with satellite campuses in University City and Coatesville. The university would ultimately phase out its undergraduate teaching program because of standard tests.
“I was worried like, OK, I have to pass this or I can't teach, forever. Which is why probably I had to take it so many times, because I worried myself,” he said. He took the reading and writing sections each twice and the math section once before passing, at a cost of around $85 per section.
The United States has been seeing a massive decline in the number of people who want to be teachers in the past few years, with federal data showing that enrollment in teacher preparation programs has dropped 31 percent since 2008. There have been various theories on why this has happened – the increasing politicization of teaching, low pay, stressful work conditions – but one factor that hasn't been as widely explored is standardized tests. For teachers.
In Pennsylvania, undergraduates must pass a basic skills test before they are even allowed to enter a teacher preparation program. They can either submit their ACT/SAT scores or take one of two pre-service tests called PAPA and CORE.
This requirement may be keeping some people from even studying to be teachers – and it has a particularly significant effect on minorities. Data from the state Standardized tests in Pa. making it difficult for some to become a teacher | PhillyVoice:
