By Diana Lambert – EdSource
California teachers may soon have more flexibility when it comes to the tests they are required to take to earn a credential.
The state’s Assembly and Senate budget subcommittees on education are recommending that legislators approve a proposal in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2021-’22 state budget that would allow candidates to earn a teaching credential without taking two tests currently required.
If it is approved, candidates wouldn’t have to take the California Basic Educational Skills Test, or CBEST, or the California Subject Examinations for Teachers, or CSET, if they have earned a grade of B or better in qualifying coursework or tests that apply toward requirements for a degree.
Currently, a teacher candidate is required to prove proficiency in basic reading, writing and math by passing the CBEST or other approved exams. The test is usually taken before a student is accepted into a teacher preparation program.
The education trailer bill released May 14 outlines the types of courses that students in teacher preparation programs can take instead of the CBEST. Classes in critical thinking, literature, philosophy, reading, rhetoric or textual analysis can be taken to prove the teacher has basic reading skills.
Classes in composition, English and rhetoric can prove basic writing skills, and courses in algebra, geometry, mathematics, quantitative reasoning or statistics can be taken to prove basic math skills.
Teacher candidates also have been required to pass tests that are part of the California Subject Examinations for Teachers to earn a credential.
Elementary school teachers must pass three tests — in science and math; reading, language, literature, history and social science; and physical education, human development and visual and performing arts — to earn a multiple-subject credential. Middle and high school teachers earn single-subject credentials in areas such as art, biology or English by passing at least one subject exam.
If the proposal is approved, teacher candidates will have the option of taking coursework at a university in the content area of the credential they are pursuing to prove subject-matter competence instead of taking some or all of the CSET tests required for their credential.
“It’s promising to see the governor and Legislature come together in support of new options for aspiring teachers to demonstrate knowledge and skills through coursework,” said Mary Vixie Sandy, executive director of the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. “These new flexibilities will strike the right balance by upholding rigorous standards and reducing unnecessary barriers to the teaching profession.”
The proposal, which has gone unchallenged by legislators during the budget process, still needs to be approved by the full Legislature as part of the budget package by June 15. Legislators must negotiate a final state budget with the governor and pass it by June 30.
California’s teacher candidates have been required to take up to six tests to earn a credential, depending on what they plan to teach. The tests have been a major stumbling block for many, with nearly half of California’s potential teachers struggling to pass the standardized tests required to earn a credential, according to data from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
In the past two years, the commission has convened work groups and held numerous meetings to study how to best reform the testing process. The COVID-19 pandemic ramped up these efforts as testing centers closed, making it difficult to take the required tests.
In spring 2020, Newsom and the Commission on Teacher Credentialing began easing some rules for the required tests. Last June, the governor gave teachers more time to complete all the requirements for a credential and more time to submit information missing from applications.
The new budget proposes suspending test requirements another year if a credential candidate is unable to complete an assessment because of testing center closures or capacity limits.
The proposed changes to teacher testing are largely the same as those proposed last year in Assembly Bill 1982, which addressed the CBEST, and Assembly Bill 2485, which addressed the CSET.
Both failed to pass before the end of the legislative session last year.
The biggest difference between the budget proposal and last year’s bills is that the bills, meant to help teachers complete their credentials during the coronavirus pandemic, were set to end after three years.
The new proposal has no sunset date.
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That’s right… lower standards for the people teaching your kids.
.
Let’s lower the bar even further for commercial pilots.
.
Whaddya think?
and let’s lower the standards for doctors, dentists, pharmacists and engineers. Everybody gets a trophy!
I am completely floored
What is going on in this world now, since BLM outbursts?
just what we need right now, dumber teachers.
I suppose the union is behind this too, dumb teachers are easier to manipulate. So much for Pres. Biden’s plan to be more competitive while China eats our lunch.
I’mm confident Newsom got a big donation for pushing this.
+1
Gavin’s dyslexia is affecting us in more ways than one!
Good grief. CBEST and CSET are basic tests designed to weed out prospective teachers who are unable to demonstrate proficiency in high school level math and language skills.
Eliminating these tests will mean lower quality teachers. Period. Shameful.
Many teachers had to take that basic test MULTIPLE times to pass. So sad. Private school, all the way. Better chance that your teacher is not a mouth-breathing moron.
I agree about the CBEST. These are basic high school math skills. However the CSET is not. At least for math much of the content we do not even teach as a high school math teacher. These were not courses required for us to take in college either. Why do I need to know the history of math to teach. The tests are more advanced than high school level. Read the stats. On average for math it takes a teacher 9 times per subtest to pass at $100 cost each test. A test shouldn’t be how we are judged on teaching the content we will actually be teaching.
Also those saying private schools have more certified teachers is wrong. You don’t need a credential to work in a private school meaning no need to take these tests at all. Many teachers have a degree is something they aren’t even teaching. There is a teacher with a degree in playing violin teaching high school math. So again my point these tests don’t prove how well we can actually teach the content. Since you believe private to be so great with not as “qualified” teachers.
wow only in a demo state does the state dumb down education
then dumbs down teaching credentials
should be illegal since we pay the taxes
but under a oppressive regime filled with corrupt machines and people dems to run them
this is what we get
hope your all happy
i hear private school vouchers should be pursued and now demanded
so if your 40 and have a kid in highschool
you should be able to send them to any private school of your choosing
since you have been paying taxes for years to educated kids
again wow and shocked that you allowed the kids to be dumbed down in the first place ….
so uneducated kids and teachers and free criminals
yeah just like binbiden the newscum knows the fix is in
got to love machines they made this state blue for years
and forced laws against the constitution to boot
now they over tax you if you leave
nice work voters
just sad
Applicants struggle with a few test, so dummy down the requirements to teach our future. That’s okay. UC schools have eliminated the SAT and ACT. Junior will still get into Cal or UCLA.
first merit based admissions are eliminated because it hurts those who don’t want to work hard
now you want to lower the bar for teachers, gosh why even have school just give the children a degree and let them get a job…
LOL!!
…. that’s just great… another reason Cali academics will stay 47th or 48th in the country?
Thank God for private schools and quality educations that are offered! Unfortunately, the public school offspring will be offered jobs turning wrenches and maybe digging ditches to support the union bosses salaries.
Or, maybe even become a Democrat Politician!
Randy – for the gazillionth time CA is not 47. That honor is held by Nevada and it really really shows. When a middle class community brags that their high school graduation rate finally hit 77% you know it is bad
California ranks 37 over all
Yet California rates #1 in weighted tax rates. Hmmm, wonder where the disconnect is?
Dumbing down teachers will certainly help the already under-performing California students get worse.Nice work.
Smells like the feces covered hands of the zombie CTA union are all over this.
Absolutely sickening what CA government and the teachers union are doing to kids education.
Over 45% of our property taxes go towards schools/education. What the hell are we paying for?
The whole system is broken.
The govt at work again…..we cant get qualified people, so we will just lower the standard……if they would spend time in college preparing to TEACH” instead of all the other BS they are taking in school that is having to do with indoctrination they might be able to pass the test(s)…
Come to NV where teaching standards are some of the lowest in the nation and you don’t need a bachelors degree to be a nurse. Kind of scary that CA might be following NV’s model
Once again we see that when there is a clash between ‘school-system-as-public-service-to-educate-kids’ and ‘school-system-as-jobs-program’, the latter ALWAYS wins.
Teacher levels of competence are as bad as their students in California. Why incentive failure with another lowering of minimum standards? My only guess is that failure IS the goal for public education. One more reason to defund public education as we know it.
+1
Wow, this is absurd to reduce the qualifications and requirements.
I guess CA’s moron politicians are just creating another career opportunity for themselves by this lessening of requirements after they term out of office.
Gavin Newsom:
Champion of The lazy!
Hero of the stupid!
Throwing a boat anchor around quality education for California children!
It’s time to dump this zero.
This will be done so the social justice warriors can get a job teaching and destroy your children. You have to vote democrats and rinos out of office or that’s the end of us.
Ricardoh got it right on!!!
Why not go for 50th out of 50. We’re going that way in all areas.
As the political philosopher H. Clinton said, “What difference does it make?” These highly trained teachers are teaching race shaming, teach students to have contempt toward the country’s founders and history, teach social justice as justification for revenge against damages not suffered, and sell socialism without mentioning socialism’s genocidal and authoritarian history. Maybe we need less “educated” teachers who don’t try to cover politics.
Lessee….
1. Dumb down the teaching credential requirements.
2. Continue teaching to “the test.”
3. Fill minds with useless political BS through high school.
4. Send the kids to college (ie, 4-year indoctrination camps) to get a BS degree from a “professor “ that has a political ax to grind.
5. Student graduates without a useful degree and $100k+ in debt. Never learned critical thinking skills.
6. Now learned to be a non-contributing parasite on society, demanding free stuff.
Nope – would not hire anyone from the CA public school/university system. Period.
If you know your teacher’s politics, they need to be fired. NOW!
I thought getting rid of Calculus in High School was a bad idea. CTA is bleeding out members to the private sector so here is their solution to a quick fix.
Teachers just announced that they support Newsom for not being recalled,
That is no surprise!!!!!!
More reasons to recall Newscum- and fire those teachers that espouse their politics.
Sure – let’s reduce the testing requirements in CA for all professions…. Medicine, law, engineering, pharmacists, architects, veterinarians, etc…. And while we’re at it it, reduce the requirements for contractors, auto repair, accountants…..
California is circling the drain, and the politicians just want to boost taxes to keep themselves in power – regardless of what they’re saying.
Keep bragging that CA has the “5th largest economy; it also has a poverty rate HIGHER than the national average. From US News, it has the 20the best education system – behind South Dakota,Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, etc… and ranked by US News as 40th in the country in k-12 education.
You don’t like it ? You voted for it.
Sucks to be you….
It is no accident that the public school systems in the US came into being during the industrial revolution. Educators such as Horace Mann promoted public education as a betterment to society. But it was the Big Tech of the day that that had the influence to make it happen. The fact is, that manufacturers needed an workforce that was educated enough to work in their factories.
Now, the workforce is no longer educated enough, so Big Tech increasingly relies on imported talent. Go figure!
Cowellian – add to that today’s parents are nothing like parents back then. Children were sent to school to learn academics. Not manners, not how to treat others, how to lose at something graciously, that they are not always going to be the “best” at everything etc, as those lessons were taught at home. Now days to many think schools should raise their kids. Yeah…..NO. Parents that’s your job.
I’m pretty sure you lived in a home like I did where you were expected to do your best, your parents accepted you got the grades YOU earned, the position on a sports team YOU earned, the part in the play YOU earned etc. Bottom line we had to work at it and earn what we got from out education.
There was a time children were sent to school to learn academics. Not manners, not how to lose at something graciously, not that they are will not always be the “best” at everything etc, as those lessons were taught at home. Now days to many think schools should raise their kids. Yeah…..NO. Parents that’s your job.
I’m pretty sure some of you lived in a home like I did where you were expected to do your best, your parents accepted you got the grades YOU earned, the position on a sports team YOU earned, the part in the play YOU earned etc. Bottom line we had to work at it and earn what we got from our education. Any lame excuse like “the teacher doesn’t like me” was me with one of two comments. Either ” you are their to learn and not be liked” or “what did you do to cause the teacher not to like you?”
As for those praising private school, there are just as many student failures not because of teachers but because of the people raising the children. To be frank you could not pay me enough to teach in the current environment of whiny parents and their equally whiny children
Nothing more than participation trophies for the kiddies, handed out by incompetent teachers, and paid for by additional taxes levied by the politicians you elected.
You got everything you deserved; so stop your whining. Keep working and voting for dem politicians;millions of idiots and illegal aliens wanting free stuff are depending on you.
and let’s lower the standards for doctors, dentists, pharmacists, air traffic controllers and civil engineers. Everybody gets a trophy!
This seems appropriate.
https://bit.ly/3py4QG8
Not that it will do any good but you should contact your rep and tell him or her what you think.
For those of you being critics….
Did you miss the part where it says “candidates wouldn’t have to take the California Basic Educational Skills Test, or CBEST, or the California Subject Examinations for Teachers, or CSET, if they have earned a grade of B or better in qualifying coursework or tests that apply toward requirements for a degree”
You know, they have to take tests in their classes.
Now, let’s say a person who is good at English, wants to teach English. But he/she/they suck at Math. Currently CBEST/CSET have both. So, the could be awesome English teacher fails the math and doesn’t end up teaching.
I’m not even going to get into the “teaching to tests” dilema. (you can end up with people passing the test, but suck at teaching).
After actually reading past the headline, it’s clear the intent is to transition from testing to more in class training at some accredited institutions with MA or MS Education programs. Who’s ox is is getting gored? The money (an MA Ed can cost near $40k!!) will flow not to Pearson and other testing multinationals but to Education programs and graduate certification programs at CSUs, UCLA, USC, etc.. The application process for these programs will likely weed out the halt and lame that cannot pass the CBEST. Passing the CSETs show content competence and should be kept in some form. But again, this “testing” can be via targeted course work and degree programs.
If anything is clear from the past 17 months it is that no matter how much money is thrown at extending the school year and “catch up”
Programs, it’s all pointless unless schools and teachers change the way they teach that demands student (and family) agency and accountability.