In Defense of Teacher Testing

To the editor:

I am always amused to read articles concerning teacher testing. It seems that because the tests "are praised by politicians and criticized by educators," those who criticize the test are always portrayed as being right.

For the January 9, 1999 administration of the MECT, 95 percent of the students who were repeat test takers (i.e., had failed before) failed once again. So any variance in test scores isn't big enough, or consistent enough, to push some of these people over the passing threshold. These poor souls also apparently all had the bad luck to get a bad proctor and/or a faulty tape both times they took the test.

I agree that maybe the test should be looked into, and I am open to the possibility that the test may be unfair, but I think The Crimson and other newspapers should put away their violins, stop playing their sad songs, and open themselves to the possibility that people are failing because they are unprepared, and they fail repeatedly because they do not invest the time and effort in order to make themselves prepared. MICHAEL V. ZINITI '99   Feb. 24, 1999

The writer is a participant in UTEP, did his student teaching last semester, took the MECT in January and passed.