Issue Brief:
Credentials and Tests in Teacher Hiring: What Do Districts Require?
February 1997
(NCES 97-592) Ordering information
I considering applicants for teaching positions, school districts rely on teacher credentials, such as state certification, or teacher tests to determine the qualifications of a candidate. In a previous Issue Brief, based on the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), it was reported that more public school districts relied on teacher credentials than test scores in both 1987-88 and 1990-91, although the required passage of tests by prospective teachers was increasing among districts (Rossi and Daugherty 1996).
To determine whether there has been a trend toward increasing reliance on tests in teacher hiring processes, the present brief presents data on public school districts' credential and test requirements for all three SASS survey years: 1987-88, 1990-91, and 1993-94. In addition, regional variations in test requirements for hiring are presented. At each SASS survey point, public school district respondents indicated which credentials and tests were required of applicants for teaching positions.\1
From 1987-88 to 1993-94, increasing percentages of public school districts required passage of state tests of basic skills and subject knowledge in the teacher hiring process, although teacher credentials were the most widely used criteria at each survey point.
In 1987-88, there were 15,244 public school districts in the United States; in 1990-91, 15,512 districts; and in 1993-94, 14,987 districts. From 1987-88 to 1993-94, the percentages of these districts relying on the credentials of teacher applicants in the hiring process remained fairly constant and, in each survey year, were higher than the percentages of districts relying on state, national, or district tests (table 1).
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Table 1. Percentage of
public school districts requiring specific credentials and passage
of specific
tests
when considering teacher applicants: 1987-88, 1990-91,
and 1993-94
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1987-88 1990--91 1993--94
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Credentials
Full Standard State Certification
for Field to be Taught 82.6 84.1 83.3
Graduation from State-Approved
Teacher Education Program 70.1 69.8 71.9
Emergency or Temporary
State Certification 66.6 68.8 67.4
College Major/Minor in Field
to be Taught 67.2 66.2 66.9
Tests
Passage of State Test of
Basic Skills 34.9 42.3 49.0
Passage of State Test or'
Subject Knowledge 23.5 34.1 39.3
Passage of the National Teachers
Examination (NTE) 21.4 29.5 30.8
Passage of District Test of Basic
Skills or Subject Knowledge 2.6 4.3 2.0
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NOTE: In 1993-94 only,
district respondents indicated whether they required the NTE Core
Battery and/or the NTE
SOURCE: U.S. Department
of Education, , 1987-88,
1990-91, and 1993-94
Professional Specialty Area. Districts
were counted as requiring the NTE if they checked either response
option.
Schools and Staffing Surveys (Teacher Demand
and Shortage Questionnaire for Public School Districts [LEAs]).
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Of the four credentials, full standard state certification was most often required in the teacher hiring process, with over 80 percent of public school districts in each year requiring this certification in the field to be taught. At least two-thirds of districts in each survey year required graduation from state-approved teacher education programs, emergency or temporary certification, and in-field college degrees.
Among the state, national, and district tests, districts most frequently required candidates to pass state tests of basic skills in each survey year and least frequently required passage of district tests.\2 Over time, increasing percentages of public school districts required passage of state-administered basic skills and subject knowledge tests. For example, the percentage of districts that required teacher applicants to pass state tests of basic skills increased steadily from 1987-88 to 1993-94, from about 35 percent to 49 percent. Although districts increasingly required the use of each of these two tests in the teacher hiring process, this pattern was not repeated for the National Teachers Examination (NTE)--a performance-based assessment for teachers developed by the Educational Testing Service---or for tests developed at the district level. Taking the NTE as an example, the percentage of districts requiring teacher applicants to pass this national examination leveled off in 1993-94 at about 31 percent, after an increase of nearly 8 percentage points from 1987-88 to 1990-91.
In 1993-94, state tests were relied upon more frequently than the NTE in the South and Midwest; in the Northeast, this pattern was reversed.
I n 1993-94, nearly two-thirds of public school districts in the South required that teacher applicants pass state tests of basic skill and subject knowledge (table 2). In comparison, about 38 percent of Southern districts required passage of the NTE. A similar pattern emerged for the Midwest, where both types of state tests were required more frequently than the NTE in that year. For example, about 42 percent of Midwestern districts required state basic skills tests, whereas 17 percent required the NTE. In contrast, the NTE was the most frequently used teacher assessment in the Northeast, with half of all districts requiring passage of the national exam. Following the NTE, similar percentages of Northeastern districts relied on state tests of basic skills and subject knowledge--39 percent and 36 percent, respectively. In the West, districts most frequently required passage of state tests of basic skills; about 58 percent of Western districts required passage of these tests compared to about one-quarter of districts that required teacher applicants to pass state subject knowledge tests or the NTE. Across all four regions, district-level tests were required less frequently than national and state tests.
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Table 2. Percentage of
public school districts requiring passage of specific tests when
considering teacher applicants, by region: 1993-94
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Northeast Midwest South West
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State Test/
Basic Skills 39.0 41.8 63.0 57.7
State Test/
Subj. Knowledge 36.0 34.4 63.0 25.6
National Teachers
Examination 50.0 17.0 38.1 28.5
District Test 2.3 2.1 1.5 2.1
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SOURCE: U.S. Department
of Education, , 1993--94
Schoolsand Staffing Survey (Teacher Demand and Shortage Questionnaire for Public School Districts [LEAs]).
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Discussion
From 1987-88 to 1993-94, public school districts continued to require credentials more frequently than passage of specific the passage of tests, most notably state tests of basic skills and subject knowledge, was increasingly required by districts in their teacher hiring processes during the period. Although in 1993-94 state tests of basic skills remained the most widely used form of test included in districts' hiring decisions overall, state tests of subject knowledge were used in nearly 40 percent of districts, and the NTE was used in nearly one-third of districts nationwide. Moreover, the specific tests used varied by region. For example, districts in the Midwest and South favored state tests and districts in the Northeast favored the NTE in 1993-94.
These findings raise questions that can be explored using SASS data. How many districts use multiple tests, or a mixture of credentials and tests, in their teacher hiring processes? Which types of school districts opt for more test requirements--e.g., do large, urban districts tend to use tests more than other districts? Which tests are more popular in different types of districts? Other questions reach beyond SASS data. For example, given ongoing concerns about the validity and reliability of standardized teacher assessments (Hill 1996), do the tests that are increasingly being used include a performance assessment component (e.g., portfolios)? What are the advantages and disadvantages for districts of using state or district tests as opposed to national tests or vice versa?
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In 1987-88, these eight criteria were evaluated by respondents in terms of screening teacher applicants; in 1990-91 and 1993-94, they were evaluated in terms of their use in considering teacher applicants.
[2] It should be noted that reliance on district-level tests may be related to district size; in 1993-94, for example, 4.4 percent of those districts serving 10,000 or more student required passage of these tests, compared to 1.7 percent of those districts serving fewer than 1,000 students. Even in large districts (i.e., district with 10,000 or more students enrolled), however. the use of district tests was below that of national and state tests.
References and Related Publications
Choy, S.P., Medrich, E.A.. Henke, R.R., and Bobbitt, S.A. (1992). Schools and Staffing in the United States: A Statistical Profile, 1987-88. Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Education. (NCES 92-120).
Choy, S.P, Henke, R.R., Alt, M.N., Medrich, E.A., and Bobbitt, S.A. (1993). Schools and Staffing in the United States: A Statistical Profile, 1990--91. Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Education, (NCES 93-146).
Henke, R.R., Choy, S.P., and Gels, S. (1996). Schools and Staffing in the United States: A Statistical Profile, 1993--94. Washington. D.C: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES 96-124).
Hill, David. (1996, May 8). "Taking on the Test." Education Week, XV(33): 24--29.
Rossi, R.J. and Daugherty, M.S. (1996). What Criteria Are Used in Considering Teacher Applicants? Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Education, (NCES 96-844).
Issue Briefs present information on education topics of current interest. All estimates shown are based on samples and are subject to sampling variability. All differences are statistically significant at the .05 level. In the design, conduct, and data processing of NCES surveys, efforts are made to minimize the effects of nonsampling errors, such as item nonresponse, measurement error, data processing error, or other systematic error. For additional details on SASS data collection methods and definitions, see the following U.S. Department of Education publications: 1987-88, 1990-9t, and 1993-94 Schools and Staffing Survey.' Sample Design and Estimation (NCES 91-127, 93-44.0, and 96-089) and Quality Profile for SASS.' Aspects o! the Qua/try of Data in the Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS)(NCES 94-340).
This Issue Brief was prepared by Shannon Daugherty, Karen DeAngelis, and Robert Rossi, American Institutes for Research. NCES publications are available on the Internet at /.
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