CAPE GIRARDEAU (AP) - Some aspiring Missouri teachers are finding themselves struggling on a new test they must pass to get a job.
In September, the state switched the exam it requires education students to take before awarding them a teaching certification, the Southeast Missourian reports. Instead of taking a teaching test known as Praxis II, students now must fare well on a more rigorous assessment called the Missouri Content Assessment.
Southeast Missouri State University's College of Education dean Diana Rogers-Adkinson said current students are caught in the transition and aren't prepared for the new exam.
Paul Katnik, an assistant commissioner for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said teacher candidates had about 15 months to prepare for, take and pass the Praxis II exam before it was discontinued. Educator preparation programs were notified in fall 2012 that the state intended to adopt a new assessment that would align to newly revised standards. The details were finalized in early 2013 and an official announcement of the change was made that May.
"It gave a pretty large window to shoot for to get (the Praxis) done so that the new assessment wouldn't count against those who have been in the pipeline for a while," Katnik said.
But university officials and students say they feel they weren't given enough time to prepare. Adkinson said she has received multiple calls from concerned students and parents.
"The kind of issues we're running into are things we predicted would happen," Adkinson said. "We predicted there would be a lot of failures on the new exams, and there are."
The college revised its curriculum this year to meet the new standards and now requires students to pass the assessment before student teaching. But the courses weren't taken by those who plan to graduate soon.
Those students include Lauren Powers, who fell just short of passing the Praxis II exit exam before the exam was changed. She has a cumulative GPA of 3.3 and said she is confident she could pass Praxis if she had a chance to retake it.
But she said the courses she took at SEMO didn't prepare her for the new exam, which she failed. Adkinson said with the changes in curriculum to align to the new assessment, Powers would have needed four new courses to prepare for the exit exam.
"For me, it feels unethical that I'm in a position of telling a student that perhaps taking additional coursework that was not required for your degree might help you pass a new exam that was launched at the end of your degree," she said.