Take Another Look At Teacher Quality

Report cards are out and Washington and Idaho aren’t making the grade at all, according to a national study on teacher quality.

Washington got a D- and Idaho was handed an F from researchers who said the two states don’t have high enough standards for teachers. Neither state requires basic skills tests for teaching candidates. The study, released by Education Week, a national education newspaper, also claims the states let too many teachers teach outside their fields. For instance, there are science teachers whose area of expertise is English.

The study makes some good points. Under the best circumstances, teachers should be teaching within their discipline. However, the reality is that in small and isolated school districts, of which there are many in Idaho and Washington, there often aren’t enough resources to attain such a standard.

The two states are among just 11 states that don’t require some kind of basic testing for teachers. Perhaps it will improve the quality of teachers. However, some of the states that now have testing are down at the bottom of the list when student proficiency is evaluated. The group that put together the study graded hard. The the national average was a C, and only a handful of states got B’s. Nevertheless, Idaho and Washington were at the bottom of the list.

Are circumstances really that dire here?

Well, it depends on how you look at your studies. The goal of education is to make students proficient in the subjects taught.

The Education Week study has figures for that, too. Washington was at or above the national average for student proficiency across the board. Idaho didn’t participate in the tests.

You get some interesting results when you compare student proficiency in Washington, a state that got a D- in teacher quality, to a state such as South Carolina, which got a B in teacher quality. In Washington, 34 percent of eighth-grade students tested at or above the proficiency grade in science. In South Carolina, just 17 percent reached the same standard. In tests of eighth-grade math proficiency the results were similar. About 26 percent of Washington students tested at or above the standard, while only 14 percent of South Carolina students made the grade.

We should always be trying to improve education; it’s our future. In Idaho, decrepit school buildings cry out for investment. In Washington, reforms are leading teachers to focus on basic skills and the governor is pushing for additional changes - including teacher competency testing. Many of us live where we live in part because of the schools. We know our schools better than out-ofstate rating organizations do. And we shouldn’t panic over a single low grade.