HOUGHTON — The Pearson Professional Readiness Exam (PRE) is a basic skills test all aspiring teachers in Michigan must pass in order to complete their teaching certification. The PRE, however, has come under increasing fire since it was implemented in 2013. The test is responsible for poor pass rates across Michigan teacher program institutions. Michigan Technological University is one of just two Michigan universities that maintains a pass rate average of over 50 percent.

Opposition to the exam has found its way onto the online petition website change.org, where signatures are being sought to force the state to replace the PRE. The petition was initiated by the Michigan Conference on English Education (MCEE).

Since being introduced three years ago, the test has created a teacher shortage in the state, according to the MCEE.

“Over the past three years, the state of Michigan has seen a dramatic drop in the number of students in our undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs: institutions in Michigan saw a 22 percent decline in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Education,” the petition states.

At Michigan Tech’s Cognitive and Learning Sciences Department, Shari Stockero, director of teacher education, agrees.

“There’s data across the state (that says) it is keeping good people out of teacher ed programs,” she said. “We’re actually starting to see a teacher shortage now in some areas. For a long time, Michigan was exporting a lot of teachers, but we’re actually seeing a teacher shortage in some areas of the state now, because we’re not getting people to come into the programs anymore.”

The MCEE, in its petition, further argued that, “The PRE is not a good way to assess potential teachers, particularly in the field of writing.”

Stockero has seen this same problem at Michigan Tech.

“Out students have the most difficulty on the writing exam. We’ve had several students who have had to re-take that piece,” she said. “There is a reading piece, too. The reading piece does not give our students problems. It’s the writing piece that does, and the main reason is, there’s an actual piece where they have to compose a piece of writing, but then there’s a piece where they basically have to sort of copy-edit a piece of writing, and that’s the piece that’s really been challenging for our students. There’s a lot of linguistic language in it, so that’s the piece that they’re having more trouble with.”