Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Failing to find any questions on yachting sails, the Boston Globe comes to reason

On Sunday, the Boston Globe reported that half of black and Hispanic applications for Massachusetts teaching certification failed to pass the licensing test. Today, a remarkable editorial followed indicating that, maybe, there wasn't a racial component to blame:

Inadequate preparation, not cultural bias, is the most likely explanation for the high failure rate among black and Hispanic candidates. Similar to the achievement gap problem between white and minority students, a solution requires educators to target the academic deficiencies of prospective teachers and provide them with remedial support.
Imagine that. A couple of years ago, as a lark, I took the MTEL test which is a half-day of readin' and writin' (no 'rithmetic). IIRC, I had a near-perfect score for writing which involved transcribing an audio passage on the history of the Constitution.

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