An Analysis of the Results from the First Annual Edition of the National Teacher Examinations

Abstract

This discussion is a report of the results of the first annual administration of the National Teacher Examinations. Discussions of the nature of the examination service and its development1 and of the administration of these examinations2 have been published else where. The National Committee on Teacher Examinations was appointed by the Amer ican Council on Education at the request of a group of superintendents in the spring of 1939. The Carnegie Foundation for the Ad vancement of Teaching provided funds for the development of the project, and the National Committee assigned to the Cooper ative Test Service of the American Council on Education the task of preparing the annual forms of the battery of examinations to be used. The service made available to superin tendents and boards of education by the National Committee on Teacher Examina tions has three principal objectives: first, the provision and administration of a battery of teacher examinations; second, the collation and distribution of information on the ap praisal of other factors to be considered in the selection of teachers ; third, the promotion of research in teacher education and guidance. It should be stated at the outset that the superintendents who inaugurated this project were well aware that no battery of tests could at the present time make possible a complete evaluation of all factors to be included in the selection of teachers. However, this group of superintendents felt that having objective and comparable information on certain aspects of training and professional preparation would be of great assistance to them with their in dividual problems of teacher selection. In common with all other persons who have been confronted with the task of teacher selection, these superintendents fully realized the diffi culty of interpreting the types of information which have previously been available to them. The selection of general areas to be tested was made chiefly through a series of confer ences with superintendents and a question naire sent to a larger group of superintend ents in the spring of 1939. Information about such traits as desirable attitudes and personal characteristics had to be eliminated from the proposed battery of examinations since satis factory techniques for measuring these traits objectively are not available. In general, the superintendents stated that they wished in formation about the extent to which candi dates could read with understanding, could express themselves clearly, and could handle numerical and non-verbal concepts intelli gently. They also wished to know to what extent the candidates had acquired a good liberal education and the extent of their awareness of contemporary affairs and cur rent social problems. They wished informa tion concerning the degree to which the candi date was aware of the social implications of education, his knowledge of the basic prin ciples of psychology as they apply to educa tion, and his familiarity with the techniques of guiding and assisting students. Lastly, they wished to know the extent to which the teacher was really a master of those fields in which he proposed to teach.