Black and Brown scholars studying teaching scored 52% lower than white candidates because of the test's historical bias.
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A recent report found Indiana’s teacher licensing exam to be a barrier to diversifying the teaching pool.
The Indiana University report led by Alexander Cuenca, associate professor of Curriculum and Instruction, examines the “decade-old problem” of the pass-rate gaps between white and Black/Brown candidates when taking the test.
Black and Latino scholars studying teaching scored 52% lower than their white counterparts on the test, known as Praxis. The teaching pool is 92% white, and the barriers posed by Praxis only prevent further diversity.
“It’s been a persistent problem that has haunted teacher licensure and the teacher demographic workforce for a very long time,” he said. “And it seems like we have only tried to recruit and retain our way out of that problem.”
Going about the problem this way does not solve anything, he said. Cuenca said we need to look at the source of the test, focusing on the systematic problems within it.
A key question for Cuenca was “How do we construct the test?” Fourteen other states asked the same question, but none had a strong answer. He decided to focus on Indiana.
“The major takeaway from this test is that the way that the test is constructed is unfortunately drawing from the pool of teachers that we have in Indiana, and that pool is a majority white pool,” Cuenca said.
If all the individuals conducting assessments are white, they are likely to have certain biases that differ from minority candidates. These biases determine the ways decisions are made on the test.
The tests serve as a gate to deter Black and Brown candidates to be hired into the profession, he said.
“There are consequential decisions that we need to consider the diversity of the room where these tests are constructed in order to perhaps break that constant cycle of Black and Brown teachers not performing as well on these licensure tests and then not having access to the classroom,” Cuenca said.
The report notes the development of these licensing tests, which came from the National Teacher Examination, NTE. The NTE was historically used to keep Black scholars in the South out of the teaching profession during the Jim Crow era.
“The initial licensure tests, the ones we use today in Indiana, have linkage to the national teacher examination,” Cuenca said. “And so we see the lineages systemically of racism in the test.”
Praxis tests cost between $200-$250, so Black and Brown prospective teachers sometimes spend up to $1,000 retaking a test that is historically and presently weighted against them.
Throwing out the test is not the solution, but rather diversifying the board who creates the test, Cuenca said.
“The easiest thing they can do is demand that in order for you to have your tests in Indiana, that any of the test construction, any of the panels that you construct have to be demographically diverse,” he said. “You can’t just have a room of majority white teachers.”
