University leaders in Mississippi have expressed their discontent at the proposed changes in the academic requirements of teacher education programs.
Gov. Phil Bryant, a republican, wants to raise the minimum academic requirements for students to qualify for teacher preparation programs in Mississippi's eight public universities.
The bill submitted in the legislature states that students will have to score 21 on the ACT college test and 3.0 GPA in recent college courses.
"The center of this, if we could look at one thing that will have a transformative effect, is getting a better teacher in the classroom," Bryant told Sun Herald.
The leaders allege that these new requirements would certainly reduce teachers' strength in two to three years in the state. They envisage a decrease in student enrolment in teacher education programs as they would choose alternative certification where there are no such requirements.
In addition, 49 percent of the students admitted last year wouldn't have qualified under the proposed requirements as they averaged 20.8 on ACT at Mississippi public universities.
Currently, there are lower requirements for GPA and ACT scores and students can sit for alternative tests, Praxis, instead of the ACT.
The reason to modify the qualifying marks is due to an analysis conducted by Mississippi State University data center. It said that students had better state test scores when taught by teachers who scored maximum marks on the ACT.
Daniel Watkins, dean of education at Jackson State University, told the newspaper that the ACT is meant to predict how a student will fare in college, not as a teacher.
