ABSTRACT

Navigating Teacher Licensure Exams offers practical, empirically sourced insights into the high-stakes licensure exams required in most states for teacher certification. This unique resource foregrounds the experiences of diverse preservice teachers, including teachers of color, to understand how they organize their preparation efforts, overcome self-doubt and anxiety, and navigate the high-pressure space of this important testing event. By situating these exams within their social and psychological contexts, presenting real-life cases of success and failure, and confronting innate perceptions of standardized tests, this book provides essential and highly practical support for preservice teachers, teacher educators, and departmental resource libraries.

part 1|2 pages

Thinking Differently About Struggle and Support

chapter 1|13 pages

Introduction

3What We Need More Than Test Prep

chapter 2|23 pages

An Inch Wide and a Mile Deep

How Students Pass After Failing the First Time

chapter 3|28 pages

Spiders and Their Webs

Advice Networks for Licensure Exams

part 2|2 pages

Addressing What’s Felt but Not Seen

chapter 4|28 pages

Say You’re White and You’ll Definitely Pass

69Working Through Ideas About Cultural Bias and Tests

chapter 5|32 pages

The Story of How We Feel

Understanding the Emotional Side of Licensure Exams

part 3|2 pages

How Faculty Members Can Support Preservice Teachers

chapter 6|23 pages

From Screening Out to Building Up

131Frameworks for Teacher Educators

chapter 7|13 pages

People Pass All the Time

Promising Practices for Teacher Educators