April 13, 2001

Report Bashes Reliance on Teaching Exams

By JULIANNE BASINGER

Lawmakers shouldn't rely on teacher-licensure tests as the sole basis for comparing teacher-education programs or for withholding funds, and new federal requirements are flawed for doing so, according to a report released last month by the National Research Council.

Licensing exams are designed to assess a narrow set of skills needed for basic competency as a beginning schoolteacher, and to separate unqualified people from those who have minimum

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