BY STEVE NUZUM
The broad argument for the Praxis test, which every traditionally-certified teacher in South Carolina must pass in order to teach-- is something like this: without some “objective” standard of quality, we’ll end up letting unqualified teachers into the profession.
Leaving aside the question of whether the Praxis actually measures the things the average person cares about in a prospective teacher (and leaving aside the question of whether these would not be measured at least as effectively by educator prep programs, which generally require an intensive internship process), what we do know about the Praxis test is that it is has historically reduced the number of teachers of color because of the statistical racial biases in the test.
South Carolina is one of only eleven states-- most in the southeast-- which still require the Praxis test as a part of the teacher certification process. South Carolina Department of Education data shows that the majority of students (about 53% are nonwhite, and 31% are specifically Black), yet according to SC-Teacher, only 16.3% of SC teachers are Black and only 2.4% are Hispanic.
This is not an accident of history.
Dr. Leslie Fenwick, former dean of the Howard University School of Education wrote, “Everywhere I looked, I found that HBCUs —which produce 50% of the nation’s Black teachers even though they comprise only 3% of the nation’s higher-education institutions—were especially sensitive to the impact of Praxis I pass scores. Predominantly white institutions (PWIs) also noticed the same impact of Praxis I on their Black students seeking admission to teacher education programs: Black students had significantly lower passing rates than Whites, leading to fewer Black students enrolling in colleges of education and ultimately, becoming teachers in our nation’s classrooms.”
Post- Brown v Board of Education, many schools moved to the use of assessments like the Praxis, and set cutoff scores for these tests, in ways that had the effect of reducing the number of teachers of color in the profession.
The de facto discrimination that resulted was bad enough that there have been multiple successful lawsuits by teachers of color over the practice of using standardized tests to screen out prospective teachers.
According to Fenwick (2022), “As early as 1926, Black teachers in segregated Black schools were more likely than White teachers in segregated White schools to hold a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree and possess advanced teacher licensure (Fenwick, 2022; National Academy of Education, 2011; Bonner, 2010; Manheim & Hellmuth, 2006). However, on the heels of the Brown decision, White school
boards, superintendents, and legislators scrambled to create new barriers to prevent Black teachers from being placed in desegregating (formerly White) schools.”
While it’s important to maintain professional standards for our teacher workforce, the current emphasis on cutoff scores does the same thing in higher education that it does in K-12 education: it ignores a holistic understanding of what a person has learned, and which skills and experiences they bring to the table.
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