Appeal MTEL Teaching Licensure Test

August 18, 2017 4:25 PM

Is it possible to appeal your test scores? I recently took the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure Exam for Foundations of Reading and failed by 1 point. I already signed up to retake the test, but do I have any other options such as king for a re-verification of score, appealing my test, etc.. I tried googling this and official MTEL and Pearson education websites are of no help. So turning to Mefi for some personal experience help.
posted by melizabeth to Education (2 answers total)

For kicks and giggles, check out the annual pass rate report from 2014. MTELs are really the worst hurdle for teachers in training. The Foundations of Reading test is one of the hardest to pass with a 60% pass rate for first timers, 66% for all others. I hope you're good with math, though, because the pass rate for the General Math test has a 53% pass rate (seriously, study like hell for math).

Funnily enough, if we educators gave a test that only had a 60% pass rate, we would recognize there was something wrong with the actual assessment. However, the MTEL people aren't changing the test and they don't allow you to appeal your score.

I wish I had better news for you. You can get your results sent to you so you can see where you made errors, and the next time you take it, you know what to fix and you'll pass and you'll be SO HAPPY you never have to take those stupid tests again.

I know many teachers who failed it; one friend had to take it ELEVEN times before he passed. It is a fairly ridiculous test that has little bearing on what we teachers actually do and everyone hates it.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 5:36 AM on August 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for that message. I appreciate it. Just was curious if you could appeal. Wow, 11 times.. I hope that doesn't become me. Guess I'm onto taking it for try #3. Thankfully passed the math and yes it was hard!
posted by melizabeth at 4:51 PM on August 19, 2017