Literacy Test Eyed for Diploma
The Bridgewater State proposal grew out of prospective teachers’ poor performance on recent state exams.

By Steve Yarmalovicz

ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

FRAMINGHAM – The poor results by Bridgewater State College students on the teacher competency test has convinced school President Adrian Tinsley that all students, regardless of their major, should be required to pass some form of a literacy skills exam to receive a diploma from Bridgewater.

Tinsley’s proposal was aired publicly for the first time Monday during an educational summit at Framingham State College called to discuss ways of improving teacher test results. About 200 educators representing 44 colleges attended the four- hour conference Monday called by James F. Carlin, chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education.

In April , 59 percent of test takers failed the state’s first-ever competency exam for prospective teachers. Forty-sever percent of prospective teachers failed the second round of testing in July.

More Bridgewater State students have taken the teacher test than any other college.

The first section of the two-part competency test measures literacy and communication skills, while the second section measures a prospective teacher’s knowledge of his field of instructional expertise, such as English or math.

Tinsley said the poor test results are a "shared problem," rather than the blame of the students of the schools of education which prepare prospective teachers to become instructions.

"The entire campus community must share responsibility since communication and literacy skills go to the heart of general education," Tinsley said.

Tinsley calls her proposal the " rising junior examination" because each student would have to pass the test after 60 hours of curse work, which generally corresponds with the beginning of the junior year in college.

Tinsley said all students would have to passed the test to graduate from Bridgewater State.

Carlin called Tinsley’s proposal a " great suggestion" during an interview Monday after the education summit concluded.

"…( It ) tells the world if I hold up a Framingham State or a Bridgewater State or a Umass diploma, I have a certain base level of knowledge," Carlin said.

Tinsley said the proposal is a " long-term initiative" that would be discussed with the faculty before being adopted. She said a decision to adopt her recommendation probably wouldn’t be made until the end of the academic year.

Tinsley said she expects an All-College Committee to approve a separate proposal that would require prospective teachers at Bridgewater State to pass the literacy skills section of the teacher certification test before being admitted to the college’s school of education. That proposal would take effect in September 1999.

The three local colleges with teacher preparation programs – Bridgewater State, Stonehill College in Easton and Wheaton College in Norton – generally scored poorly in the fist two rounds of teacher testing in April and July.

In April, only 32.9 percent of BSC students, 30 percent of Stonehill graduates and 45.5 percent of Wheaton students passed the two-part, eight –four exam. IN July, 37.5 percent of Bridgewater State students and 25 percent of Stonehill students passed the exam.

The passing rate of Wheaton College students jumped dramatically in the second round of testing. Seventy-five percent of Wheaton students passed the teacher test in July.

Prospective teachers who fail the competency test are denied a certificate to teach in Massachusetts pubic schools.

Carlin asked administrators from teacher training colleges to develop "a clear, no-nonsense plan of attack "to solve the problem of poor test results by their graduates.

In a speech Monday at the educational summit, Gov. Paul Cellucci repeated his proposal of last month calling for the Board of Education to deny accreditation to schools of education that fail to obtain an 80 percent passing rate by 2001.

Other proposals discussed Monday included a fifth year of college for prospective teachers and financial incentive to lure " the best and the brightest" into the profession.

John R. Silber, the chairman of the Board of Education, continued his attack on schools of education for failing to adequately prepare prospective teachers to pass the test.

Many educators at the summit voiced support for the idea of a certification tests, but said they doubt the academic validity of some sections the exams given in April and July.

" That test on literacy was an extraordinarily simple test that any high school senior who was well educated in rigorous high school should have passed," said Silber, in dismissing concerns about the validity of the test.

Silber said Monday that the average " educational program has a typical reputation on a college campus as being a program for dum-dums."

" I think we have to be honest enough to know that schools of education and education associations have a major responsibility for the situation we are in," Silber said.

The audience of college administrators, most of them from schools of education, listened politely to Silber’s speech, but the educators often gave each other looks of exasperation after some of his controversial remarks.

" His agenda is an anti-school of education agenda," Tinsley said after the summit concluded. " I don’t share it. I’m not sympathetic with many of the views that he presented."

"It’s very easy to make speeches that are based on cliches and stereotypes. We have an excellent faculty in the school of education," the Bridgewater State College president said.

Vicki Bartolini, an assistant professor in the education department at Wheaton College, said the educational summit Monday was " a tiny step forward in communications , but ultimately very frustrating."

Frinde Maher, the chairman of education department at Wheaton, said the teacher certification test is being used as " an instrument which is more of a means for attacking people who want to be teachers."

Maher and Tinsley, along with many other educators, said they were happy to hear at the summit that they would be receiving more data this week from the Department of Education indicating the sections of the test in which their students fared poorly.

" We don’t have the information we need," Tinsley said. " We are in the situation of being told that we screwed up, but we don’t know how."

The Board of Higher Education is expected to recommend a list of proposals for improving teacher test scores by the end of September.

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