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Michigan Axes Basic Skills Test For Teachers
Breitbart ^ | 07/02/18 | Katherine Rodriguez

Posted on 07/03/2018 5:54:54 AM PDT by Enlightened1

Michigan lawmakers axed a requirement that would make prospective teachers take a basic skills test before earning their certification in Michigan.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation last week to get rid of the law requiring all prospective teachers to take the SAT to become certified in the state of Michigan, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Knollenberg, who serves as the state Senate Education Committee chair, said the panel made its decision to make it easier for people to become teachers.

“To me, the good teachers — they’re inspired and have passion. Why should they be burdened with a test that isn’t relevant to the subject matter they teach?” Knollenberg said, adding that the previous system was not an accurate way to “measure competency” in a subject.

National Council on Teacher Quality President Kate Walsh pushed back on the decision Friday, arguing that there needs to be a basic standard for teachers in this country.

“You do need to assess if candidates have basic skills. Can they read and write and are they mathematically literate? There should be some entry standard that’s objective,” Walsh said.

The examination was one of two tests teachers had to take to teach in Michigan. The other test measures competency in the subject matter prospective teachers plan to teach. The second test is still a requirement for those who want to enter the teaching profession in Michigan.

The law would begin to take effect September 25.

Michigan teachers have struggled to hire teachers in STEM fields such as math and science, foreign languages, and special education. The number of teaching certificates issued in the state dropped by nearly half from 1996 to 2016, and the state has resorted to “wining and dining” prospective teachers to convince them to enter the profession.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: liberallogic; michigan; publicschools; skills; teachers; test
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To: Leaning Right

After I read that I had to check if it was satire.


21 posted on 07/03/2018 6:12:25 AM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Enlightened1

The dumbing down of America continues.


22 posted on 07/03/2018 6:13:13 AM PDT by Bayan
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To: litehaus

>>Sounds like FLORIDA many,many moons ago....<<

Good to know Michigan has a specific target :)


23 posted on 07/03/2018 6:13:31 AM PDT by freedumb2003 ("please pass the winnamins" (/Principled on 6/27/2018))
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To: Enlightened1
To me, the good teachers — they’re inspired and have passion. Why should they be burdened with a test that isn’t relevant to the subject matter they teach?

Teachers change subjects all the time. Teachers often joke openly about not having a clue about their subject, especially when they are given classes to teach like general health merely to keep them on the payroll.

Nobody's interest in the psychodramas of teachers. Don't care if they have passion and inspiration or not. Their job is the delivery of knowledge, not putting cliched posters on the wall or decorating their classrooms.

The statement is a tacit admission that teachers/education majors lack a well-rounded base of knowledge. Do we want hyper-specialists who can't relate a math problem to a moon shot or a moon shot to a discussion of lunar geology?

Teachers' cultural illiteracy has proven to be a major problem as they promote socialism, Marxism, statism, etc. Many of them have no idea what went on in Russia, Cambodia, Cuba or even Venezuela.

24 posted on 07/03/2018 6:15:11 AM PDT by relictele
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To: Enlightened1
a requirement that would make prospective progressive teachers...

Fixed it.

25 posted on 07/03/2018 6:15:37 AM PDT by C210N (Republicans sign check fronts; 'Rats sign check backs.)
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To: Leaning Right

“Can’t blame the Democrats for this one.”

AH,com’on...The shxxhole cities and towns like Detroit have had Dems in charge for DECADES..


26 posted on 07/03/2018 6:16:18 AM PDT by litehaus (A memory toooo long.............)
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To: Leaning Right

When I retired out of the Air Force, I looked at the teacher recruitment going on, and there was a significant focus to get retired military in five or six different states. The states would have covered the certificate business. The negative as I saw it....these were looking for highly urbanized areas where you really don’t want to move into, or highly rural areas (I remember Montana being on the list). Las Vegas was on the list, and still is today...actively trying to get people interested.

Most school districts see military people as positive role models and very capable of enforcing discipline. I won’t argue about that. But if you came up to me and said here’s a guaranteed two-year deal at some upper-peninsula (full-up winter conditions) school...it’d be awful hard to convince me to move there.


27 posted on 07/03/2018 6:17:38 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: Enlightened1

“You do need to assess if candidates have basic skills. Can they read and write and are they mathematically literate?”

While I know I took the SAT shortly after the Dark Ages, I thought that’s what the SAT tested for? Has something changed?


28 posted on 07/03/2018 6:19:37 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Enlightened1

Didn’t New York State recently eliminate the requirement that teachers have to be literate?

Half the country is falling all over themselves to emulate the s**thole countries. Maybe to make the illegals feel at home, I don’t know.


29 posted on 07/03/2018 6:20:13 AM PDT by MichaelCorleone (Jesus Christ is not a religion. He's the Truth.)
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To: Enlightened1

Not enough minorities, so penalize the achievers, reward the stupid slackers.


30 posted on 07/03/2018 6:25:39 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Search Google for: "politico obama collusion with hezbollah". obama is a traitor to this country.)
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To: Enlightened1

The people easiest to indoctrinate are the people least likely to be able to achieve basic skills. Education departments of universities are about the worst agents of indoctrination that exist in universities, probably the very worst.


31 posted on 07/03/2018 6:26:53 AM PDT by FreedomForce
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To: Enlightened1

It’s easier to dumb down the students if you first dumb down the teachers. Are Soros and his puppet Barry Soetoro behind this?


32 posted on 07/03/2018 6:27:05 AM PDT by SharpRightTurn (Chuck Schumer--giving pond scum everywhere a bad name.)
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To: Nifster

Or we could dispense with teachers altogether and just award diplomas to every student. That would sure cut out a lot of wasted time and effort.


33 posted on 07/03/2018 6:29:26 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: PeterPrinciple

“Results”??? Are you NUTS? What government program is ever measured based on results? The only things that matter are feelings, good intentions, and votes.


34 posted on 07/03/2018 6:31:16 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Enlightened1

Ain’t got no time fo’ dat skills test.


35 posted on 07/03/2018 6:33:01 AM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: Enlightened1

Another story.

I approached the Vocational Agriculture/FFA program I grew up in. I laid out a project with an agriculture CJ2a jeep, developed national support for them and a way for them to earn the money to do the project.

They were interested in the jeep I was offering but not the plan. When I asked how they were going to pay for the project the response was to ask for donations from the business on main street.

The star pupil they held out to me was a student who got a government loan. All I heard about was the government loan, not what he did with the loan.

I walked away...…………………...


36 posted on 07/03/2018 6:34:55 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: pepsionice

You wouldn’t be allowed to enforce discipline, either. You would be reprimanded or fired for doing so. Or, shortly after being called on the carpet for enforcing discipline, you would get frustrated and quit. The inmates are running the asylum at every school in the country.


37 posted on 07/03/2018 6:37:25 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Enlightened1

If you can only afford to hire the cheap teachers, you have to make it possible for them to serve...


38 posted on 07/03/2018 6:40:09 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: pepsionice
Baloney. Even truck drivers (who have a far more severe shortage than teachers) are expected to pass basic skills tests before getting licensed because public safety depends on them.

Your could hire a local housewife or retiree to proctor and get a qualified teacher to bring the class on-line. Some would be good enough to handle two, three or even more classes. The technology to do that is already here. My brother teaches college level courses by internet.

39 posted on 07/03/2018 6:49:04 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
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The article didn’t say what the SAT score requirements were. It’s: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, 480 or higher; and
Mathematics, 530 or higher. The average score is about 1000.


40 posted on 07/03/2018 6:54:43 AM PDT by Kipp
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