An Empty Curriculum

Sandra Stotsky

doi:10.5771/9781475815689

Summary

Teachers cannot teach what they do not know. This country has tolerated a weak licensing system for prospective teachers for decades. This weak system has been accompanied by an increasingly emptier curriculum for most students, depriving them of the knowledge and skills needed for self-government.

An Empty Curriculum: How Teacher Licensure Tests Lead to Empty Student Minds makes the case that the complete revision of the licensing system for prospective and veteran teachers in Massachusetts in 2000 and the construction of new or more demanding teacher licensing tests contributed significantly to the Massachusetts “education miracle.” That “miracle” consisted of enduring gains in achievement for students in all demographic groups and in all regional vocational/technical high schools since 2005—gains confirmed by tests independent of Massachusetts policy makers.

The immediate purpose of this book is to explain what Massachusetts did in 2000 to strengthen its teacher licensing and re-licensing system to ensure that all teachers could teach to relatively strong K-12 standards. Its larger purpose is to suggest that development of strong academic standards in all major subjects should be followed by complete revision of a state’s teacher licensing system, not, as has been the case for several decades, the development of K-12 student tests—if this country wants to strengthen public education.

Keywords

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2015
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4758-1567-2
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4758-1568-9
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 145
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. 1. Note No access
1. Problem No access
2. Sources of Information No access
3. Definitions of Key Terms No access
4. Points to Remember No access
5. Notes No access
1. Purpose for Licensure in Other Professions No access
2. Purpose for Licensure for Teachers in Public Schools No access
3. Why Teachers in Private Schools Don’t Need a License No access
4. Why All Teachers in Charter Schools Don’t Need a License No access
5. Points to Remember No access
6. Notes No access
1. Organizations that Develop Teacher Licensure Tests No access
2. Types of Teacher Licensure Tests No access
3. Legal Basis for Teacher Licensure Tests No access
4. When Teacher Licensure Tests Are Taken No access
5. Meaning of Pass Scores No access
6. What We Know about the Content of Teacher Licensure Tests No access
7. Points to Remember No access
8. Notes No access
1. Early Teacher Examinations No access
2. Teacher Tests in the 20th Century No access
3. Growing Influence of Teacher Educators after World War II No access
4. Rising Demand for Teacher Licensure Tests in the 1970s and 1980s No access
5. Congressional Requirement in 1998 of Licensure Tests for All Prospective Teachers No access
6. Points to Remember No access
7. Notes No access
1. How the Content of Teacher Licensing Tests May Be Designated No access
2. Reliance on a College Major or Minor No access
3. Usefulness of a Topic Approach No access
4. How Subject Area Licensure Tests for Teachers Indirectly Shape the School Curriculum No access
5. Notes No access
1. Licensure Tests for Foreign Language Teachers No access
2. Licensure Tests for Teachers of Young Students No access
3. Licensure Tests for Teachers of Middle School Students No access
4. Licensure Tests for Full-Time Mathematics Teachers in the Elementary and Middle School No access
5. Stand-Alone Licensure Tests of Mathematical Knowledge for Elementary School Generalists No access
6. Licensure Tests for Science Teachers No access
7. Licensure Tests for Teachers of Communication and Performing Arts No access
8. Licensure Tests for English Teachers No access
9. Licensure Tests for History Teachers No access
10. Licensure Tests for U.S. Government Teachers No access
11. Notes No access
1. Undergraduate Majors No access
2. Academic Time on Task No access
3. Weeding Out Outdated Licenses No access
4. Grade Levels Covered by a License No access
5. Grade Levels and Practicum Hours for Student Teaching No access
6. Construction and Types of Test Items on Licensure Tests No access
1. Gradual Expansion of Required Credit Hours in Education Coursework No access
2. Required Coursework for a Master’s Degree Program in Education No access
3. Requirements for Professional Development No access
4. Concluding Remarks No access
5. Notes No access
1. Examples of Studies on Predictive Validity No access
2. What Studies of Predictive Validity Tell Us No access
3. Studies of the Construct or Content Validity of Teacher Tests No access
4. What Studies of Construct or Content Validity Tell Us No access
5. Notes No access
1. Anomaly of Teacher Licensure Tests No access
2. Claims about the Supply and Academic Quality of Prospective Teachers No access
3. Measure of Value-Added, not Disciplinary, Knowledge: Which Is Preferable? No access
4. Procedural Obstacles No access
5. Notes No access
1. Fail to Ask for Stronger Quality Controls No access
2. Leave Academic Admission Standards Alone No access
3. Rely on Accreditation No access
4. Require States to Report Pass Rates Annually No access
5. Notes No access
1. Strengthen the Licensing System for CTE Teachers at all Levels No access
2. Require the Same Academic Admission Standards as Other Countries No access
3. Learn from Changes in the Bay State’s Licensing System for Prospective Teachers No access
4. Some Specific Changes to Make No access
5. Above All, Require Qualified Curriculum Directors in K–12 No access
6. Notes No access
About the Author No access Pages 145 - 145