Laura Grieve-Mabry, Debby Gatchel and Rachel Williams live in different communities and are at different stages in their careers, but they share a common frustration: Pearson Education teacher licensure tests.
Grieve-Mabry and Gatchel have education degrees, but they haven’t been able to pass all required tests to obtain their licenses. Williams, an educator with 11 years experience, had difficulty with a school librarian test necessary to continue as her school’s medial specialist.
They say the Pearson tests, required since last year, are extremely difficult, ask questions far removed from the grades they hope to teach and appropriate study materials have been hard to find. They, and others, report taking the tests multiple times, which add up in costs.
Williams, who graduated from Indiana State University in 2000, spent nearly $500 to purchase study materials and to take the test three times, paying more than $100 each time she took the test. She finally passed this summer. While she was a classroom teacher for many years, she’s not unfamiliar with libraries. She also worked at the Vigo County Public Library for four years.
“I feel like Pearson has set us up to fail these tests,” said Gatchel, who lives in North Manchester and received an online degree from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. “You won’t pass them the first time, and if you are lucky, you may pass them the second time.”
Grieve-Mabry, who lives in Parke County, could have had a job teaching at an elementary school this fall, but she had trouble passing two of the six tests (reading and social studies) necessary to obtain her license. She’s taken the reading test three times and social studies test two times.
She graduated magna cum laude from SMWC, and her area of study was preschool through grade 3/mild intervention (special education).
The tests “are extremely hard. You keep trying and trying, and you eventually get discouraged because you can’t pass it,” Mabry said. “It not only discourages you but lowers your self-esteem.”
Not only are people paying to repeat the tests, but they are missing out on lost income when schools that want to hire them can’t because the aspiring educators don’t have a license.
There’s getting to be a teacher shortage in Indiana, and those interviewed believe the new Pearson testing system could be one of the factors. “I was ready for the classroom,” said Mabry, 46, married with one child, who spent several years working on her online degree.
Melanie Beaver, a Vigo County School Corp. middle school teacher and Woods adjunct faculty member, is seeing the problem first-hand, as talented graduates who demonstrate the potential to become great teachers struggle with the new tests. The Indiana Department of Education and state board, working with educators and Pearson, have been making adjustments as problems have come to light, according to an IDOE spokesman.
“I sure hope these new changes will help teacher candidates across the state,” Beaver said. “We have highly trained and passionate teachers ready to make a difference in the classroom, and passing a battery of these tests is the only thing standing in their way. It’s somewhat of a slap in the face to our nationally accredited and highly rigorous programs that our students struggle to pass those tests.”
Indiana Department of Education responds
Daniel Altman, Indiana Department of Education spokesman, said the department has heard the concerns and is working to address them. “It’s something we’re working on proactively with Pearson and the state Board of Education to mitigate that drop” in licensure testing pass rates.
The tests are relatively new, and anytime there is a change of tests, “you do generally see a drop in performance,” he said.
He does not believe data back up the suggestion that the new tests are causing people to not pursue the teaching profession; the decline in new teachers began before the testing changed.
The state established new educator standards several years ago, and new tests also were developed as a result, officials say. It’s been a five-year process that started under former state Superintendent Tony Bennett.
A few years ago, the state changed testing companies. It used to be ETS, and future educators needed to pass a Praxis I basic skills test to enter teacher preparation programs; they later had to pass Praxis 2 content tests for licensure. Many states have used the Praxis tests.
The new test provider is Pearson, and the tests have been redesigned and are based on Indiana standards. Praxis 1 was replaced with CORE Academic Skills Assessment (CASA) to demonstrate basic skills. According to Judy Sheese, student services director with the Bayh College of Education, students statewide were having trouble passing it, and the state, in consultation with educators and Pearson, made adjustments.
Praxis 2 was replaced with Pearson core content tests, and future teachers (those seeking their initial license) also must pass a teaching methods (pedagogy) test.
The more rigorous licensing tests are based on the new educator standards, and colleges of education had several years to realign curriculum to cover the new standards, said Risa Regnier, IDOE assistant superintendent for school achievement and support services.
Universities are still working to better align their curriculum to those standards, and IDOE is working with universities on that, Regnier said.
Questions on the new tests were vetted and approved through panels that included teachers and university educators, Regnier said. Educators were also involved in setting cut scores.
Tests also have a free study guide and a free test “blueprint” that can be printed and used for test preparation, state officials say. And there are practice tests for several of the content areas with the highest volume of testing, Regnier said. Pearson is making more practice tests every year, she said.
Practice tests are available for purchase (from Pearson) at www.in.nesinc.com/Home.aspx. There are 18 content area practice tests currently available.
When people encounter a lack of study materials, “We want them to reach out to us to make sure the right materials are out there,” Altman said. “We are listening.”
And as the state has made changes, including more time for certain tests as well as changing cut scores, Indiana educators are involved, Altman said. All parents wants their children taught by the best teacher possible, but officials also “want to make sure the test is fair.”
Sheese, of Indiana State, says the state has made “quite a few adjustments in different tests.”
“I think anytime you have a new test, there are issues that come with new tests. I think the adjustments are good ones, and I think they based them on statewide data that certainly support those (changes),” she said. She believes pass rates should improve. “I hope so. I think the state hopes so,” she said.
Sheese noted that in recent years, there have been some significant changes in licensing.
For early childhood and elementary education (generalist) licensure, those future teachers must pass four subtests: reading/language arts; math; science/health/PE; and social studies and fine arts. They also must pass a separate teaching techniques test (pedagogy).
At the secondary level, future teachers must pass a test for each content area on their license. For example, there used to be a general social studies license; now, a future teacher must take a test for each area of social studies they hope to teach.
Pearson responds
On Friday, Laura Howe, Pearson spokesperson, released the following statement:
“Pearson is committed to ensuring that its educator licensure exams are fair and equitable for all test takers and reflect qualifications needed for educators to teach in Indiana schools. It is important to know that those qualifications, along with the content of the Indiana licensure examinations, are state specific and are aligned to state-mandated student and teacher education standards,” she wrote in an email.
“In addition, Indiana education experts were involved in the development and review of these exams. This included practicing teachers as well as educator preparation program faculty. These same groups continue to participate in regular reviews of the exam content.
“Pearson also makes every effort to ensure test takers have the opportunity to understand the content and prepare for the exam. To do that, Pearson makes available preparation materials directly to test takers and we host webinars and in-person workshops for faculty who prepare candidates for the exam,” Howe wrote.
Howe indicated that no one from Pearson was available for an interview.
Vigo County School Corp. impacted
The Vigo County School Corp. has had qualified candidates that it wanted to hire, but some have not been able to pass the tests necessary to obtain a license, Mick Newport, VCSC director of human resources, said earlier this fall. Some of them were hired on a substitute basis as they continued to work toward passing the tests.
Most “have a very good knowledge of the subject area,” Newport said. “I believe our colleges and universities have done a nice job of preparing them, but the tests are extremely difficult, and they must realize it because they (state board of education) are making modifications,” Newport said. “My concern is, I’m not sure how realistic these tests are.”
Danny Tanoos, VCSC superintendent, is also aware of talented college graduates and aspiring teachers struggling with the Pearson licensure tests.
Some of those who have had difficulty passing the tests are highly qualified; they have graduated from college, met all requirements, have high GPAs and performed at the highest level during student teaching. Yet the tests are written in such a way that these highly qualified people are having difficulty passing them, he said.
Tanoos sees it as “part of a continued attack on public education,” with some state-level elected officials “trying to make it difficult for people to become teachers.”
More frustration
The state may be making efforts to work out the kinks, but frustrations remain as college grads and even licensed teachers struggle with the tests.
In 2014, Gatchel graduated with honors from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College as an education major, and she won a Future Outstanding Teacher award. But the North Manchester resident still does not have her teaching license, which she blames on Pearson licensure tests.
If the Praxis II content exams, in their entirety, were not passed by May 31, 2014, it could not be used to satisfy the content area assessment requirements for licensure.
And that’s where Gatchel’s problems began. She took all of her Praxis II exams except one and ran out of time because she was student teaching. Because she didn’t pass them all by May 31, 2014, they could not be used to obtain her license. “Those tests were very expensive,” she said. She believes she, and others in her situation, should have been grandfathered.
While Pearson said it offered study materials and it had sample test questions on a website, those questions did not prepare her for the tests, said Gatchel, who runs her own home day care in northern Indiana. Her license would be for pre-K through third grade/mild intervention (special education).
“I am lucky enough in that I have my own (day care) I own and operate,” Gatchel said. But for many college students who have student loan debt and need a job, they don’t have the money to keep taking the tests over and over.
Subtests cost $45 each, and the pedagogy test was more than $100. So far, she has passed two of the six she must pass.
At her day care, she teaches preschool, but to be recognized by the state as a preschool, she needs her teacher’s license. Her dream is to be a classroom teacher.
Those who haven’t been able to pass work together “to try and find something to study, and we pool our resources,” she said. They share information, “talk each other through this and get our frustrations out. It’s so disappointing,” she said.
Several students are second-guessing their choice to enter the field of education and wondering if they wasted four years in college preparing to become teachers. Some are choosing different career paths.
“Our education was not deficient. The Woods prepared us,” Gatchel said.
Failure to pass the tests “is in no way reflective of their readiness to be great teachers,” Beaver said. “The test is not aligned with what we feel prepares teachers to be effective in the classroom. If it did, they’d pass.”
Experienced teachers impacted
But it’s not just those seeking to become teachers who are affected. Some experienced teachers looking for additional licensing have had problems as well.
Rachel Williams, who’s been a teacher for 11 years, including five at Davis Park Elementary, faced challenges in obtaining necessary licensure to serve as the school media specialist. She had to pass a Pearson test to add it to her license.
“It was hands down the hardest thing I’ve ever taken,” she said. “I had to take it three times.” It’s called a “school librarian” exam.
The test had 100 multiple choice questions “and it was terrible.” Each question had four options for answers, “and two of them were always correct.” She questioned the wording of some of the items, which included: “Which is the first thing you should do” or “which is the best thing you should do ....”
When using the terms “best” or “first” in teaching, she believes it depends on the situation at each respective school. “All schools are different, and the dynamics of kids are different.”
Her school is high poverty, and if the test asks a question about a child not returning a book on time, “My answer will be different than someone else’s at a different school.” But none of that was taken into account in the test, she said.
The first time she took the test, she missed the cutoff score by just one question. “When you get the score back, they don’t tell you what you got wrong, so the next time you take it, you don’t have any idea what to study for,” Williams said.
Similar to Gatchel, she said there was no study guide at the time. Now, there is. When she first took the test, “No one had heard of it. No one could help me.” She reached out to different colleges that might have textbooks on media specialist programs.
“I hit every roadblock possible” while looking for some type of study guide to assist her.
Later, after searching “the depths of the Internet,” there were a few companies that offered study guides, and she bought two from different places. She also bought hundreds of test prep questions related to the Praxis test, which again she paid for out of her own pocket.
She’s probably only going to be a media specialist in elementary, but the questions were K-12. A lot of questions were oriented to high school. Now that she’s passed, she can be a school media specialist at all grades, K-12.
“I felt like such a failure all year. I have background in library (studies)” and she worked for the Vigo County Public Library for four years, she said. She worked last year as the Davis Park media specialist while trying to get her added licensure for that area. “I thought surely I can use my background to answer the question — but that was not the case at all,” Williams said.
Since she passed the test, she’s been contacted by others who have faced similar difficulties. They formed a study group, which included one person who had a master’s in media library science.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Williams said. The testing company “is making its money. People like me, we’re stuck.” Aspiring educators, as well as those who need added licensure, must pass the tests so they can teach.