About a fourth of Tennessee elementary school teacher candidates who fail their licensure test on their first attempt don’t try again, with an even higher “walkaway rate” for aspiring teachers of color, according to national data released Wednesday.
For Tennesseans of color who failed their first exam, about a third didn’t retest for licensure, according to a report by the National Council on Teacher Quality.
First-time passage rates also varied significantly among the state’s nearly 40 teacher training programs – from 7% at LeMoyne-Owen College to 100% at Vanderbilt University.
The data, which council officials say is being released for the first time, offers important insights for Tennessee in its push to replenish, strengthen and diversify its workforce of 61,000-plus public school teachers – and to have an effective teacher in every classroom.
The analysis focuses on elementary school teacher candidates between 2015 and 2018 when Tennessee required its test-takers to pass two Praxis exams to obtain licensure. One test generates an overall score on content knowledge, which is defined as the minimal knowledge needed to teach a subject.