It’s appalling that there is not a standard English proficiency and literacy test required for all schoolteachers in the USA, given the high levels of deficiencies reported. However, it must be the right test, well designed and thoroughly validated. The comment from the guy at the Manhattan Institute (not a lefty organization by any means) suggests that this may be a vague, lousy test. The proper response is not to do away with the requirement, but to get a better test.
It is truly astounding that there should be any issue at all about creating and requiring a competent test of this nature. As for “racial disparities” in testing, the solution is not to drop standards but to insist that ALL failing candidates work harder to improve their competence.
...suggests that this may be a vague, lousy test.
So it’s a vague, lousy test that whites can pass better than black or Hispanics?
I am ten weeks away from my 75th birthday and what I was taught in public school as standard English is hardly spoken or written any longer. We hear people at the highest levels of government and newscasters who have journalism degrees speaking what used to be called colloquial or even “hillbilly” English. Let us not even discuss the abominable state of written English.