In Michigan, you can get a teaching degree and successfully work as a teacher in a school — yet lose your job if you are not a good test taker.

The Michigan Test for Teacher Certification is a 100-question multiple-choice exam. It was first established in the early 1990s. There is little evidence that it has helped Michigan turn out better teachers.

Dr. Kyle Griffith and I described the problem in a recent Detroit News op-ed:

Out-of-state teachers coming from states without this requirement are also able to bypass the test. These teachers may have been evaluated by non-Michigan administrators using standards that don’t align with Michigan’s curriculum. Yet they are deemed qualified to teach here without taking the certification test. Still, state law requires Michigan college students who majored in education to pass the test within four years or lose their ability to teach. Even if someone has taught effectively for three years, with high praise from parents, colleagues and their school principal, being a bad test taker means they lose their license. It’s absurd.

Senate Bill 189, introduced by Sen. Joe Bellino, R-Monroe, looks to change this. The bill would allow people who have a teaching degree and have taught in public schools for three years to be granted a full teachers’ license.

That’s a good move. A local school is better qualified than a single standardized test to judge whether a teacher is successfully educating children. Current law also creates a perverse incentive that discourages people who want to stay and teach in Michigan. Right now, a person who moves to Michigan from another state can be granted a license without taking the test, while a Michigander who gets a teaching degree in Michigan can't do the same.

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