Besieged Institutions and the Massachusetts Teacher Tests

Abstract

Teacher testing was inaugurated in Massachusetts in 1998 and a 59% failure rate among test-takers led to public shaming of the teacher candidates and their colleges and universities in the media. Within a two-year time period, low-performing teacher education programs in Massachusetts initiated a wide range of test preparatory activities which led to a dramatic increase in their students' pass rates. The authors separate colleges and universities into three categories and examine their differentiated responses to teacher testing. Their finding that institutions of higher education have responded effectively to teacher testing does not preclude critique of teacher testing as currently practiced in Massachusetts.