SENATE BILL: The Let Us Have More Teachers Act (Law'd)

[President Tyrion]

If more than 75% of prospective teachers demonstrate they are capable, and there is a need for them, I do not see a reason to turn them away.  Any standards should be set according to criteria that are considered necessary for effective teaching, and not relative to what other prospective teachers happen to get on a test.

While the AITA is a valuable project, this bill will also clarify that regions retain their traditional role in being able to set their own standards for licensure according to their needs. 

75% might be an arbitrary cutoff, but so is any other cutoff for a standardized test that we might devise.

And, if the perceived problem is a lack of teachers, lowering the barriers to entry isn't going to improve the quality of education.

[President Tyrion]

I believe there is a compromise to be made here. I would ask the Senate to consider increasing the rigor of the exam and also repeal the cap. This ensures quality why expanding the access to teachers.

How does one legislate "rigor"?

[President Tyrion]

Nay

[President Tyrion]

If the bar doesn't move, how is that any less arbitrary?

Essentially, you're putting extreme faith in your test writers that the test will be consistent and of equal difficulty every time. That's not to say such a guideline is inherently worse, but it doesn't strike me as "better" either.

[President Tyrion]

You can't design a test to admit a certain percentage of takers. But even if you could, 75% seems awfully arbitrary. The way this would work is you list all the scores of the test takers and then convert them to a percentile. The highest score or scores would be the 99th percentile and on down. The lowest 25% would be deemed to have failed. So, you could get the same score twice, fail once, and pass the second time. I don't think that's particularly fair. It's simpler and fairer to debate and select a raw score cut-off, and call that the passing score. Just my view of it.

Right, but that same score would be on different tests. Performance relative to one's peers is the important indicator.