Education majors doubt Praxis exams

PRAXIS, page 1 vidual’s outlook of themselves. probably a whole semester because, even if I got it fixed by now, I still wouldn’t be able to student teach,” Dan Cowhey, a senior history a nd secondary education major, said.

Manorexia is a term that has been dormant for a while, due to the egotistical males that plague society.

“It is more difficult to come forward. You cannot admit to your feelings in a macho culture; people think you are weak and you fear that you are going to lose respect from your friends,” ananonymous man interviewed by EDA, who suffered from manorexia, said.

Praxis exams are broken into four or five tests. The first three test knowledge of basic reading, writing and math skills, which are taken usually freshman or sophomore year. The reading and math are multiple choice, and the writing is essay. The fourth test is a measure of ones in-depth knowledge of reading and writing with an addition of a social science section taken sophomore or junior year. Lastly, the fifth test is focused on the specific area of study taken senior year.

Since the rise of electronically scored test errors, like the case of the College Board mis-scoring the SATs in October, many students feel that they should not be weighed as such a big part of becoming a teacher. “I think the only thing that could fix it is less emphasis on the test,” Cowhey said. “It’s a good judgment of knowledge, but I don’t know if it’s a good judgment of teach- ing,” he said.

Most students agreed that grading by computers is inevitable and not always error proof. They also agreed that the mistakes were major setbacks for those who were involved.

“This exam dict ates a teacher’s future. If the exam isnot passed, students are unable to continue progressing in their educational studies because they cannot participate in field experience,” Randazzo said.

Carrie Kauffman, a senior history and secondary education major, thought that students look to the Praxis tests to determine if they will be effective teachers. However, she felt that other qualities that cannot be determined by a written test are very important in becoming an excellent teacher and are not recognized. “Classroom demeanor and a genuine desire for students to succeed as effective citizens cannot be scored on a multiplechoice test,” Kauffman said.

“I think it’s a shame that so many tests were incorrectly scored. I’m glad that I wasn’t involved in the case, but as a student of education, I sympathize with the students that were affected,” Kauffman said.

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