Should teachers pass a bar exam

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The praxis is a joke. I heard of lots of people failing it, but in all honesty those people have no business teaching kids. I did National board and it is a lot of hoops to jump through and it is very narrowly focused. However, it is a logical and well conceived process.

Yes... this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thought this was also a way for the field to become more elite and attract candidates they couldn't attract before. And when that happens, salaries might go up, the profession could get its due respect and attract competitive candidates. Raise the bar so to speak.

Well, first it would cut out the number of people able to be certified (because they couldn't pass the bar exam). That would create a shortage of teachers and therefore school districts would need to raise salaries... but where would they get the money to do so? They would need to raise taxes which in this economy really would be a tough sell. The general public would say "We think our teachers are good enough -- we don't want to raise property taxes". They would vote down property tax increases. So schools couldn't raise salaries. So now school districts would be stuck -- they can't hire new teachers but they have vacancies... so they would need to hire substitute teachers.

[Anonymous]

Having a qualifying exam to be a teacher is an excellent suggestion. People put the future of their children in their hands. Teachers must be qualified enough and maybe with a filtered out lot, quality of education will improve.

[Anonymous]

Another potential problem: If different states use different certification exam standards (which seems likely because different states will need to control the local supply/demand curve), then the exam acts as a barrier to prevent teachers from seeking employment across state lines. For example, a Virginia teacher moving to Maryland would need to plan her move a year in advance to take the Maryland exam, so she could find a job. There might also be local teacher unions that try to use the exam to deter competition from outsiders.

That's how it plays out in the legal field, and I see no reason teachers would not play the same games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another potential problem: If different states use different certification exam standards (which seems likely because different states will need to control the local supply/demand curve), then the exam acts as a barrier to prevent teachers from seeking employment across state lines. For example, a Virginia teacher moving to Maryland would need to plan her move a year in advance to take the Maryland exam, so she could find a job. There might also be local teacher unions that try to use the exam to deter competition from outsiders.

That's how it plays out in the legal field, and I see no reason teachers would not play the same games.

Not necessarily. Many states have reciprocity with teacher certification. It requires some paperwork and hoop jumping, but not further testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another potential problem: If different states use different certification exam standards (which seems likely because different states will need to control the local supply/demand curve), then the exam acts as a barrier to prevent teachers from seeking employment across state lines. For example, a Virginia teacher moving to Maryland would need to plan her move a year in advance to take the Maryland exam, so she could find a job. There might also be local teacher unions that try to use the exam to deter competition from outsiders.

That's how it plays out in the legal field, and I see no reason teachers would not play the same games.

Not necessarily. Many states have reciprocity with teacher certification. It requires some paperwork and hoop jumping, but not further testing.

Right, but the reciprocity is limited. If it's not full reciprocity for all states (i.e., a national standard), then it's a barrier to entry. And I can imagine most states will want different standards to address local issues -- for example, Massachusetts might want to require higher scores than Maine, or have a different set of skills tests entirely.