Teacher licensing examinations—True progress or an illusion?

Over the past 10 years, public criticism of student achievement has been accompanied by a multitude of educational reforms, most of which emphasized the importance of setting national standards for student achievement and for the level and quality of teaching. The demand for frameworks to assess the extent to which students and teachers met the requirements set down by the national standards, followed. One such group of examinations – licensing exams – is directed at beginning teachers to determine which of them will be certified to teach. Thus these examinations are a regulatory mechanism designed to shape the national teaching force. This paper addresses these examinations. It consists of three sections. The first section includes information about licensing exams in many countries, licensing requirements, and whether or not the exams are actually in use. The second section of the paper presents arguments for and against licensing exams and in the third section the author presents her position on the issues addressed.