MTTC+English+Test

[[image:http://1000awesomethings.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/look-out-below.jpg width="267" height="210" align="left"]]
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=Don't let the MTTC test block your road= =to becoming a teacher!=

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This means that you now need a higher score to pass the MTTC English Test. The test is no different; it is just harder to pass.
====Whereas before the cut score was raised most secondary English majors passed the test, now significant numbers of students are no longer passing. Many have passed on retakes ($73 each time), but some are still failing after as many as three tries!==== = = = =

**So, what can I do to prepare for this test?**
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 * ====This test is //supposed// to measure what you have learned to be an English teacher. So, you might //wait// to take the test until you have finished your coursework.====
 * ====Examine the official MTTC study guides.====
 * ====Use the Momentrix MTTC Flash Card Study System ($47). I have looked at these flash cards and they are actually pretty good. They are divided into groups to match the four different subsections of the test. Created by a private, for profit, company, Mometrix Test Preparation. They also make a downloadable Test Secrets study guide (can be in paper or downloaded) ($40). Here is the persuasive Mometrix pitch.====
 * A student recommends looking at [|MTTC Practice Tests] ($12 each) made by a company called Fekula Test Preparation. I have not, as yet, seen these tests nor do I have information about their quality. They offer a series of ten tests each with 100 questions. At their website you can take a ten question sample test for free.

From studying the results of WMU students on this test I have learned a few things:
====A test seems to pass if its subscores add to 11 or more; almost invariably the test fails if the subscores added up to nine or less; when the subscores add up to 10 the test may either pass or fail (presumably narrowly, whatever the result). At our university failing tests had the following subscores for each area:====
 * 1) ====Meaning and Communication: 1.3====
 * 2) ====Literature and Understanding: 2.1====
 * 3) ====Genre and Craft of Language: 2.1====
 * 4) ====Skills and Processes: 2.6====

The subscores from students with passing tests, while they do better in all areas, in fact repeat this pattern:
====This data shows me that students who are threatened with failing the test likely have MOST to gain by focusing their preparation on Area 1 (where clearly most of the failing students got a subscore of only 1); they have a substantial amount to gain by prepping areas 2 and 3; they have least to gain from prep in area 4, where even the failing students are already doing fairly well. And the pattern repeats with passing students, who are relatively weak in Area 1 -- while clearly a great many of them get a 4 (the highest subscore) in area 4.====
 * 1) ====Meaning and Communication: 2.6====
 * 2) ====Literature and Understanding: 3.0====
 * 3) ====Genre and Craft of Language: 3.3====
 * 4) ====Skills and Processes: 3.7====

**Teacher certification testing has been enacted by many states in an effort to "improve education." What questions does such testing raise?**
====Is a multiple choice test a good way to screen out "bad" teachers? Why should a multiple choice test prevent a person from becoming a teacher after they have passed a basic skills test, been an outstanding student in all of their university course work, and been a terrific intern teacher? Does research support the validity of this kind of test? Do such tests keep teachers of color or future teacher from poor or working class families, in particular, from entering the profession?====

The more you consider these questions, the more troubling they become!
====The MTTC test prospective teachers are required to take may be an example of what happens when legislators and bureaucrats try to "improve education" on the cheap. One thing is clear, [|Pearson Education, Inc.], the company that makes these tests -- and lobbies legislators to adopt them -- is making money from the test.====

Contrasting perspectives on teacher certification testing:

 * ===Fair Test: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing===
 * ==="Don't Judge Teachers by Standardized Tests"===
 * ===Testing in Massachusetts===

The arguments in favor of testing teachers.

 * ===Pearson Makes a Case for It's Tests===
 * ===Pearson Spokesman on YouTube===

Scholarly research on testing teachers for certification:

 * ==="Repeating Histo**ry: Teacher Licensure Testing in Massachusetts," by Rona Flippo, //Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education//, v16 n3 p211-29, Sep. 2002.**===
 * ===**Testing Teacher Candidates: The Role of Licensure Tests in Improving Teacher Quality (2001)**===

//Follow the money// on the MTTC test:
====College students pay NCS Pearson significant fees to take these required tests ($49 for basic skills, $73 for first subject area, $59 for second subject area, ($30-70 for late registration, etc.)) -- the company has a contract with the State of Michigan indicating that from these fees Pearson will receive over $12 million dollars and the Michigan Department of Education will itself get $5 per test taken. (Check out the [|MDE-Pearson contract].) Not only does Pearson own National Evaluation Systems (as of 2005) the company that used to create the MTTC tests, they also own most of the textbook publishing companies, including Scott Foresman, Harcourt, Prentice-Hall, Longman, Allyn and Bacon, Addison-Wesley, Penguin, Heinemann, etc. Learn more about them on the Pearson Wikipedia page.====
 * ===SchoolTM: Teacher Decision Making in the Era of the (For-Profit) Corporate Classroom===
 * ===Follow the Money.org===