Episode 24: Strengthening and Diversifying the Teacher Workforce ft. Kate Walsh

BY Ed Post Staff March 13, 2019

Our guest for this episode is Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). We discuss the NCTQ's surprising findings in their recent report, A Fair Chance: Simple Steps to Strengthen and Diversify the Teacher Workforce. They found that the first-time pass rate for elementary teacher content exams is abysmally low: only 46 percent of candidates passed on their first try. We discuss possible explanations for the low pass rates as well as their effect on teacher diversity. [spp-player url=http://traffic.libsyn.com/voices4ed/24_-_Education_Post_-_Walsh_on_Diversiy_in_Teaching.mp3] [spp-tweet tweet="“Everybody’s trying to protect higher ed from being embarassed. This is a consumer protection issue: people who want to study to be a teacher have a right to this information and it’s being withheld.” – Kate Walsh"]

Episode Details:

The most surprising results from the NCTQ report
How colleges are failing to prepare teachers for the licensing exam
Why Black and Hispanic examinees have even lower pass rates
The complete lack of transparency in the reporting of pass rates
Are there viable alternative routes to teacher certification?

Links Mentioned:

[spp-tweet tweet="“Two thirds of all elementary teachers will admit in government surveys that they don’t know their content well enough.” – Kate Walsh"]