Certifying teachers gets tougher

The New York State Department of Education has posted results online showing how teachers colleges did in training their students to pass tough new certification standards. The news is not good for some colleges on Long Island.

Teachers must pass four measures to gain a certificate: Educating All Students, meaning the ability to connect with a diverse population; Academic Literacy Skills, requiring test-takers to demonstrate an understanding of texts; Education Teacher Performance Assessment, or edTPA, which requires video of would-be teachers in front of a classroom; and various content areas such as mathematics, biology, music, etc.

Except for the content area tests, the rest became harder for the Class of 2014, with the result that only 68 percent of students statewide passed all the required exams. The lowest scores across the board were for literacy skills. In past years, 95 percent or more taking these tests were certified to teach.

Here are the Long Island numbers, and click here to see how all NYS schools scored:

-- Adelphi University, Garden City, 69 percent

-- Dowling College, Oakdale, 47 percent

-- Hofstra University, Hempstead, 71 percent

-- LIU Post, Brookville, 63 percent

-- LIU Riverhead, 52 percent

-- Molloy College, Rockville Centre, 70 percent

-- St. Joseph's College, Patchogue, 70 percent

-- Stony Brook University, 81 percent

-- SUNY Old Westbury, 58 percent

-- Touro College, Bay Shore, 55 percent

Education colleges where 80 percent or less pass the certification exams are required to write a corrective action plan that shows how they will improve in the next three years.

New York officials say their get-tough policy on education schools is part of a national movement that will be announced soon.

Better teachers equal better schooling for our kids.

Anne Michaud is the interactive editor for Newsday Opinion.