An Empty Curriculum The Need to Reform Teacher Licensing Regulations and Tests [Hardcover]

May 2016 Book of the Month. Stotsky has recently devoted her time to warning about the academic weakness of Common Core. She helped create Massachusetts English and Math standards, which were excellent before the state fell prey to Common Core. If states move forward with evidence-based reforms in teacher preparation, then failed Common Core student standards would have less impact. Well-trained teachers imparting subject matter over which they have mastery could have a greater impact on students than standards.During my twenty-seven years with the Department, I worked with thirty colleges and universities to help them prepare for the states review of their licensure programs. Under Dr. Stotskys leadership, we were able to put into practice many of the long-needed changes in teacher preparation and licensing that she discusses in An Empty Curriculum: The Need to Reform Teacher Licensing Regulations and Tests. These little miracles all contributed to the larger onethe remarkable and sustained increase in student achievement among all demographic groups in Massachusetts since 2005.Sandra Stotsky has done a great service to this country as well as?Massachusetts?in leading the effort to strengthen teacher training and assessment in order to address the provisions of the Education Reform Act. Our students' success in?Massachusetts?was due in large part to the work of?classroom teachers. Assuring that those teachers have proper content knowledge and strong academic backgrounds to teach their subject, as her book details, proved invaluable.Although it is difficult to find a lucid discussion of the design, development, and implementation of teacher licensing tests in available sources, Sandra Stotsky has done a wonderful job of articulating the thinking that occurred at each phase of the development or revision of the subject area tests she was responsible for in Massachusetts. She explains the various professional views of the educators and policy makers with whom shls;