Abstract
It is widely argued that excellent, or “quality,” teachers are linked to gains in student achievement. This is reinforced in education policy discourses, globally, which stress the role of quality teachers in securing strong, competitive education systems. To achieve this, the selection and preparation of teacher candidates has emerged as one key strategy in contemporary teacher education reform. With reference to the concept of gatekee**, this chapter problematizes the discourses of inputs that has come to dominate understandings of teacher quality with respect to teacher recruitment and supply. A discourse of inputs focuses on selecting high-quality candidates upon entry into teacher education, as well as ensuring those candidates exit teacher education programs “classroom ready” before entering the teaching profession. For national consistency, standardized tests have emerged as a gatekee** mechanism to determine the quality of teacher candidates upon entry and exit from teacher education. This chapter interrogates the challenges and opportunities of standardized testing as a gatekeeper with reference to Australia’s use of standardized entry and exit tests in teacher education reform. We conclude by highlighting the implications of these reforms on the recruitment and supply of teachers and understandings of quality in teacher education.
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Barnes, M., Cross, R. (2023). Standardized Testing as a Gatekee** Mechanism for Teacher Quality. In: Menter, I. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education Research . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16193-3_4
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