{"id":9115,"date":"2018-01-18T10:01:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T16:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teachersoftomorrow.org\/?p=9115"},"modified":"2018-01-19T10:08:15","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T16:08:15","slug":"michigan-basic-skills-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teachersoftomorrow.org\/blog\/insights\/michigan-basic-skills-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Basic Skills Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week the Michigan Senate Education committee took up the issue of Michigan Basic Skills test in testimony for Senate Bill 727 (SB727).\u00a0 The bill proposes to eliminate the basic skills test so that more people can become teachers in Michigan.\u00a0Teachers of Tomorrow<\/a> is leading the charge on this effort because we have seen first-hand how this is adversely affecting the teacher pipeline in Michigan.<\/p>\n

In October 2017, MDE notified all providers that the new SAT would be required and it had an immediate adverse impact on potential teachers. We have so many career changers who look at this as a ridiculous barrier. They proved their basic skills when they earned their bachelor’s degree. Having them go sit in a high school with their future students to take a 4-hour test makes no sense.<\/p>\n

At the hearing we had a discussion about basic skills. One of our Spanish teachers made the point that she is teaching in Pontiac schools where they don’t have a Spanish teacher and she doesn’t need advanced math skills to teach Spanish. We agree that they need math – but do they need:<\/p>\n