Immigrant teachers are failing to pass certification
tests and it is becoming a problem. There are many Asian, African,
Hispanic and other out-of-the country teachers who have taught and
are extremely excited to be able to continue their career in the
diverse country called America. They already have experiences
handling students for several years, learned how to present their
lessons and were certified in their homelands. Most of the minority
teachers are competent teachers but not at taking certification
exams. In Texas, the Texas Education Agency, or (TEA), requires all
teachers to pass certification tests before teaching. But, most of
them fail the test and hinder themselves from teaching. Is it the
language that prevents them from passing? Or, is the test is too
difficult to understand?
TEA is a branch of the state government
of Texas in the United States responsible for public education.
Agency responsibilities include: managing the textbook adoption
process; overseeing development of the statewide curriculum;
administering the statewide assessment program; administering a data
collection system on public school students, staff, and finances;
rating school districts under the statewide accountability system;
operating research and information programs; monitoring for
compliance with federal guidelines; and serving as a fiscal agent for
the distribution of state and federal funds. The Educational
Testing Service (ETS), is the private nonprofit educational testing
and assessment organization. ETS develops various standardized tests
primarily in the United States for K-12 and higher education, and it
also administers international tests and the Praxis test. Many
of the assessments it develops are associated with entry to
institutions, but it also develops K–12 statewide
assessments used for accountability testing in many states, including
California, Texas, Tennessee and Virginia. In total, ETS annually
administers 20 million exams in the U.S. and in 180 other
countries.
Every year, public and private schools are in need of
teachers. It is not easy to find new teachers to fill classroom
vacancies these days. As M. Christopher Brown, the president of the
historically black institution says, “We need the best teachers in
the classroom, irrespective of race. I don't think anyone would
accept a lower-quality doctor during heart transplant, based on an
equity issue. The reality is that, as the bar rises, you have to meet
it” ( qtd. in Sawchuk 20).
A standard certification allows a
person to assure qualification to perform a task and a ticket to get
a job at a school. In order to have one, every person is required to
get a teacher's certification. Hall et al mentions that the Texas
Examination of Educator Standards (TExES) tests are based on broad
domains and specific competencies prepared by ETS. The state is
interested in determining if teachers know how to teach and know
subject matter content. For this reason, it is important to realize
that the test is biased. Many of the test questions have two answers
that seem correct (8).
Immigrant teachers will struggle taking
the test due to its language. Mathematics, Science, Social Studies,
English, Reading, Language Arts and PPR tests are all in the English
language. The Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities (PPR)
test is in English and it is an assessment that will ensure teachers
can demonstrate higher-order thinking and must demonstrate
flexibility and creativity in solving the problems they face in their
classrooms. Sartor expresses that English takes up a great deal of
time and effort. That we should be focused pluralism and diversity by
allowing different languages in local media and prints (48).
In
America, we know that English is important in order to get a job and
be successful. Does it really prove your capability of handling
students in a classroom? Do we really need to be an expert English
speakers teaching diverse students? Or being literate in English and
making connections to students needs are enough to be a teacher?
Although, most of the immigrant teachers came with the knowledge of
speaking and understanding English they still fail to pass. Ross
reports, "One woman holds two bachelor's degrees from India,
where she taught third grade for two years. Another woman was
attending university in Iran to become a teacher. She taught English
in Turkey for nearly five years before coming to the US, where she
found work as a language facilitator in the public schools. Both
women struggled to pass the Praxis I exam, which is a state
requirement for certification. After two unsuccessfully attempts,
they became in eligible for full certification" (70).
Learning
the language is important, but a person can only master one language.
We can't expect somebody to learn, speak, write and perfect a
different language right away. As the Government of 1916 says, "Learn
English. Attend Night School. Become a Citizen. It means a better
opportunity and a better home in America. It means a better job. It
means a better chance for your children. It means a better America.
Ask the nearest public school about classes” (qtd. in Dayton-Wood
397).
Dayton-Wood also
acknowledges Emory Bogardus, a sociology professor who was active in
the settlement house movement, argues in his manual for educators
that "to suppress the use of all languages in the United States
except the English will hinder rather than help Americanization."
She continues, "When you strike at the language of a person, you
strike at his feelings, his mother tongue, and his childhood
memories" (403).
As a result, white teachers who speak the
native language are dominating the teaching corps of the P-K 12
schools. It also affect the diversity ratio of students. Sawchuck
reveals that just 17 percent of teachers are nonwhite, compared to
about 40 percent of K-12 students, according to federal data. The
diversity mismatch between teachers and students graphically exists
in Washington State's Renton School District (20).
While the
percentage of minority teachers are decreasing, the minority
students’ future of becoming teachers will be decreasing as well.
McNulty and Brown believe that students achieve at a higher rate if
they are taught by teachers that represent their racial background.
Immigrant teachers have more experiences understanding their
students' background than the white teachers. They’re research
studies indicating minority teachers can translate the culture,
create sense of school belonging and develop a sense of school
community for minority children (81-179).
In order to help the
immigrant teachers, Paulson suggests that the state should permit
experienced teachers to work in the school system while they work
toward getting their state certification. She also cites one young
man who wanted to be a music teacher in Massachusetts. He had
graduated from prestigious Berklee College of Music, was a composer,
a conductor, and a skilled musician, and yet was denied a job because
he could not pass the dictation section of the Massachusetts exam
(15).
Additionally, it would be helpful to make some revision of
the test. Hoff explains that the Public Advocates Inc. argues that
the California Basic Educational Skills Test, or CBEST, violates
federal anti-discrimination laws because it is not an accurate way to
measure a prospective teacher's skill in the classroom and has a
negative impact on minority members. The state already has tacitly
admitted that the testing program in its original form was invalid,
contends John T. Affeldt, a managing lawyer for Public Advocates,
which represents the three groups suing the state. In 1995, an expert
hired by the state said that some portions of the exam didn't measure
the skills needed to be a teacher. “The state then revised the
exam, and the passing rates of African-American, Hispanic, and
Asian-American test-takers improved” Mr. Affeldt said (qtd. in Hoff
3).
Another helpful solution is to provide dictionaries for the
examinees. Supplementing the test takers with dictionaries for
learners of English will give the help and support they need to understand the
directions and questions correctly. Fry says that people who
reported using the dictionary had statistically significantly higher
test scores, suggesting potential benefits of dictionary use during
tests (129).
Lastly, to help increase their chance to continue
teaching, the state agency and educator policy makers should focus
certification on a teacher's actual performance. The
New Teacher Project, or TNTP, acknowledges that educator
agency should refocus certification on teacher's performance in the
classroom, based on a high standard for first-year excellence. By the
end of the first year, teachers should be able to create a positive
classroom culture, manage student behavior, and lead lessons in which
the learning objective is clear (60).
Focusing on a teacher's
actual performance [not the certification test] can help minority
candidates improve and continually learn and grow- a hallmark of
effective teachers. TNTP strongly suggests that TEA and schools need
to to be disciplined about the feedback that we give to new teachers
and focus on targeted, specific, and immediate interventions. They
must link evaluation to development, so that teachers drive their own
development, using information from observations and other sources of
data to target specific practices that would lead to greater student
learning (61).
The problem is overwhelming: the minority
teachers failing the test and both teachers and students’ ratio of
color is decreasing. Immigrant teachers can't no longer wait to
support something that will help fill in the job vacancies at the
public schools. The revision of the test, supplementation of
dictionaries or translations, and allowing the immigrant teachers to
continue to teach are the most efficient means of keeping diversity
in the country. Some will never be convinced, but every little bit
helps for the future of our children. As the mother of a student
mentions, “Mama, I haven't had any Asian teachers,” and the
mother responded, “Yeah. I need to start working on that” (qtd.
in Sawchuck 15).
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