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Numerous studies show that education majors is the US have among the lowest composite ACT and LSAT scores of any major. http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.c

by bugsy 16y ago

Numerous studies show that education majors is the US have among the lowest composite ACT and LSAT scores of any major. http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2006/02/ranking-school-smarts-by-major.html http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2006/02/ranking-sc... There have been various explanation for this phenomenon which started in the 1970s and grew since then. Among the most interesting hypotheses is that traditionally smart women went into teaching as one of the few careers available to women who did not want to become young mothers and housewives. But this century, with more opportunities available to women, smart women become doctors, psychologists, screen writers, etc. Yet teaching is still a career dominated by women, leaving the less qualified students to take the available positions.

akashs 16y ago
Why would you expect people who want to be teachers to do well on an admissions test for law school? Engineers do almost as poorly on the GRE Verbal, but does that mean they're idiots? I understand the LSAT has little to do with law, but just think of the selection bias of people in that bucket.
- bugsy 16y ago
  That particular one has LSAT, GMAT, and GRE scores, it's a grad school study. There are also ACT and SAT studies that support it as well. I merely wanted to call attention to this data, take it for what it is. http://www2.ed.gov/admins/tchrqual/learn/preparingteachersconference/whitehurst.html http://www2.ed.gov/admins/tchrqual/learn/preparingteachersco... "[C]ollege students majoring in education have lower SAT and ACT scores than students majoring in the arts and sciences. For example, among college graduates who majored in education, 14% had SAT or ACT scores in the top quartile, compared to 26% who majored in the social sciences, compared to 37% who majored mathematics/computer science/natural science. In addition, those who did not prepare to teach but became teachers were much more likely to have scored in the top quartile (35 percent) than those who prepared to teach and became teachers (14 percent) (NCES, 2001)." He is there referencing pg 69 of "National Center for Education Statistics (2001). The Condition of Education, 2001. Washington, DC: US Department of Education" found at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001072.pdf http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001072.pdf where you can see on the chart that education majors are more likely to be in the bottom quartile of academically qualified students than any other field of study listed. You also see there is a massive difference between those who teach who majored in education and those who teach who did not major in education. Teachers who majored in education are 27% likely to be in the bottom quartile compared to those who didn't major in education, at 20%. And as previously cited, 35% of the non-education majors who end up teaching are from the top quartile whereas only 14% of teachers who majored in education are from the top quartile academically. You can also see in the chart that the more academically qualified one is, the more likely they are to abandon teaching as a career. I assert that this is all relevant and leave it to the curious reader to figure for themselves why this might be so.
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pg 16y ago
That hypothesis would be easy to test.
jshen 16y ago
My wife is a teacher. When you look at the economics and politics of teaching it's hard to want to be a teacher.

by bugsy 16y ago

akashs 16y ago

Why would you expect people who want to be teachers to do well on an admissions test for law school? Engineers do almost as poorly on the GRE Verbal, but does that mean they're idiots? I understand the LSAT has little to do with law, but just think of the selection bias of people in that bucket.

bugsy 16y ago
That particular one has LSAT, GMAT, and GRE scores, it's a grad school study. There are also ACT and SAT studies that support it as well. I merely wanted to call attention to this data, take it for what it is. http://www2.ed.gov/admins/tchrqual/learn/preparingteachersconference/whitehurst.html http://www2.ed.gov/admins/tchrqual/learn/preparingteachersco... "[C]ollege students majoring in education have lower SAT and ACT scores than students majoring in the arts and sciences. For example, among college graduates who majored in education, 14% had SAT or ACT scores in the top quartile, compared to 26% who majored in the social sciences, compared to 37% who majored mathematics/computer science/natural science. In addition, those who did not prepare to teach but became teachers were much more likely to have scored in the top quartile (35 percent) than those who prepared to teach and became teachers (14 percent) (NCES, 2001)." He is there referencing pg 69 of "National Center for Education Statistics (2001). The Condition of Education, 2001. Washington, DC: US Department of Education" found at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001072.pdf http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001072.pdf where you can see on the chart that education majors are more likely to be in the bottom quartile of academically qualified students than any other field of study listed. You also see there is a massive difference between those who teach who majored in education and those who teach who did not major in education. Teachers who majored in education are 27% likely to be in the bottom quartile compared to those who didn't major in education, at 20%. And as previously cited, 35% of the non-education majors who end up teaching are from the top quartile whereas only 14% of teachers who majored in education are from the top quartile academically. You can also see in the chart that the more academically qualified one is, the more likely they are to abandon teaching as a career. I assert that this is all relevant and leave it to the curious reader to figure for themselves why this might be so.
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pg 16y ago

That hypothesis would be easy to test.

jshen 16y ago

My wife is a teacher. When you look at the economics and politics of teaching it's hard to want to be a teacher.