Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, August 15, 1986
Grading the tests
The 99.1 percent passing rate for the Texas Examination of
Current Administrators and Teachers (TECAT) has been
lauded as a reassuring indication that teacher competency is on
the rise. But the 80 percent passing rate for the Examination for
the Certification of Educators in Texas (ExCET) is being be
moaned as a sign that teacher education programs are not up to
par. A closer examination shows that results can be deceiving.
TECAT is a placebo of educational reform. The test does
not upgrade the quality of education or improve the level of tea
cher competency. It is an assessment of basic skills, designed to
weed out illiterates who have managed to worm their way into
the classroom.
Those who cannot pass this test never should have been al
lowed to teach in the first place. Most of those who completed
the TECAT in June were taking it for the second time, after fail
ing their first chancb in March. Nevertheless, the 1,199 teachers
who failed the TECAT twice still can be given a one-year exten
sion.
The overall impact of the TECAT reassures the public that
most teachers at least can read and write, but it does not mea
sure teaching ability in a teacher’s specialization.
The ExCET exam, however, goes beyond the basic assess
ments of TECAT. This exam is more thorough and takes twice
as long to complete. Half of the exam concentrates on the teach
er’s area of specialization.
The lower passing rate is not a sign of poor teacher educa
tion programs so much as a sign that the public’s demands for
higher teaching standards are being implemented.
The ExCET exam eventually will make the TECAT obso
lete. It assures that incompetent teachers never get certification,
let alone a classroom.
Where the TECAT attempts to make up for poor education
standards of the past, the ExCET is nipping teacher incompe
tence in the bud.
The 20 percent failing rate for the ExCET should be more
reassuring to quality-education-conscious Texans than the 0.9
percent failing for the TECAT. Texas A&M should be proud its
graduates scored higher than the state average, with 93 percent
passing.
Both tests serve a purpose in education reform. But while
the TECAT is little more than a feeble attempt to purge incom
petence from schools, the ExCET is a final quality check before
teachers leave the academic factory, ensuring that the educators
themselves are properly educated.
The Battalion Editorial Board
India’s independence
sparked development
Jagannath
. Valluri
Guest Columnist
It is not easy for
a Westerner to un
ci e r s t a n d , m u c h
less appreciate,
the sprawling, di-
verse, elusive and wondrous country
that is India. Few nations hold such a
power to shock and enthral. It is an an
cient land where wisdom made it’s
home, where spirituality, religion and
philosophy have attained their culmi
nating points.
India, once a rich and prosperous na
tion, fell prey to incessant foreign inva
sions, and it’s people were impeded in
their quest for progress. During the pe
riod of industrial revolution, when the
Western world flourished with scientific
dicoveries, India was struggling to gain
independence. Under the leadership of
Mahatma Ghandi on August 15, 1947,
India became an independent country
after 200 years of British rule.
Before India became independent,
there was not much industrial growth or
stimulation for scientific pursuit. A
dozen or so universities, mainly estab
lish by the British, functioned primarily
as institutions giving courses and pre
paring people for clerical jobs. Research
in the pure sciences was nurtured
against heavy odds.
The export of raw materials and im
port of finished goods in the days of
pre-independence was more a rule than
an exception. However, what appeared
to have motivated the small scientific
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
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Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Michelle Powe, Editor
Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor
Scott Sutherland, City Editor
Sue Krenek, News Editor
Ken Sury, Sports Editor
Editorial Policy
The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa
per operated as a coinmunitv sen ice to Texas . tX\M and
Bryun-College Station.
Op inns expressed in The Battalion are those of the
Editor Board or the author, and do not necessarily rep
resent i opinions of 7 \as A&M administrators, faculty
or the Board of Regents
The B: talion also sen es as a laboratory newspaper Tor
students in reporting, editing and photography classes
within the Department of Journalism.
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community before 1947 was the spirit-
of-freedom movement led by Ghandi
and the desires to show the powers that
were that while we might be a subju
gated nation politically, intellectually we
certainly were not inferior.
Today, India is better known in the
Western world than it has ever been for
it’s scientific and technological achieve
ments. With the aid of Western
blueprints, independent India launched
a series of ambitious development pro
grams and has achieved spectacular suc
cesses in building a large industrial in
frastructure.
India has to its credit such achieve
ments as self-sufficiency in grain supply
and a substantial substitution of do
mestic production for imports in basic
sectors. It is one of the “pioneers” in the
Third World, with respect to science
and technology. It has entered the
“Space Age” having launched indige
nously designed satellites. India has now
achieved a status among the most ad
vanced nuclear nations and plans to
generate 10,000 megawatts of atomic
power by the turn of the century.
India's viability derives from a com
mon commitment to democracy shared
by all its distinctly separate states.
Lately, this commitment to nation
hood and progress is being torn by Sikh
terrorism, political assasinations and re
ligious feuds. The breakup into small,
weakened states is being encouraged by
some communists, but Indians have
heard it all before. Punjab is an example
of this malady of regionalism and reli
gious fanaticism that has beset India. No
state can exist alone as a viable unit, and
all fare better only in a confederation
under one leadership.
President John F. Kennedy said, “No
thoughtful citizen can fail to see our
stake in the survival of free government
in India . . . should India fall prey to in
ternal disorder or disillisionment
among either its masses or leaders and
become absorbed in the communist sys
tem, the Free World would suffer an in
calculable blow.”
Beyond question, India shares the
same ideals of democracy, liberty and
freedom which made America a great
nation.
Jagannath Valluri is a graduate re
search assistant in the Department of
Forest Science.
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vhit
President doesn’t do drugs
or common sense, either
Justin
flute enlis
,o\. John
ouered 1
el|- turn
peaker Oil
■posed ta
Toining (
Bden of
•fir Ben I
llnmerce
fischer Sr
id chairm
JAII thre
White’s call
Kease
get deficit.
Slonnallv
(of Texas a
understand
H.ewis.
strong opp<
nos
HViihoui
by name, (
to help elii
billion statt
A bemused ob
server from an
other planet, hav
ing seen the drug
panic triggered by
the tragic death of
two ballplayers,
would note that
both the Reagan
administration
and the congres
sional Democrats
have reacted in ^
characteristic fashion.
■msihle o
H'W’e do
are affluent. The verdict on coke is now
in: It’s highly addictive, sometimes fatal
Richard
Cohen
The Democrats
want to spend money and the president
wants to put on a show.
Of the two, the president wins the
silly award hands down. He and Vice
President George Bush have volun
teered to undergo drug testing. This
takes considerably less courage on their
parts than volunteering for an I.Q. test,
although their willingness to take one
test tells us something about what the
results of the other would be. If there is
one thing we know about both Reagan
and Bush, it is that they do not do
drugs.
But neither do they do common
sense. Reagan says he is setting an ex
ample for other federal government
employees. But, of course, he isn’t. The
reason for that is that he does not do
drugs and lots of government employ
ees do. Most of them, for sure, smoke
marijuana which — unless they are air-
traffic controllers or something similar
— ought to be their own business. If the
government does not test for wine, beer
or Amaretto liqueur, it should not be all
that interested in marijuana.
If Reagan’s and bush’s drug tests
prove anything it is that the administra
tion has lost its head over the nation’s
drug problem. The real crisis is not in
the federal government among wor k
ers of any kind, but among kids on the
street. Just how testing the president,
the vice-president or, even, the secre
tary of state is going to put a dent into
the drug traffic in, say Harlem or Fort
Pierce, Fla., is something the adminis
tration does not explain. The panic, af
ter all, is over cocaine and its derivative,
crack.
and may cause heart disease as well. 1 lit
affluent are beginning to want no part
of it.
So like long hair for men, cocaine and
crack are becoming downwardly mobile.
Like heroin before it, coke seems des
tined to Find its home in the ghetto and
when that happens you can bet that nei
ther the Democratic Congress nor the
Reagan White House is going to be
much concerned.
It seems that every president since
McKinley lias declared war on drugs —
and every one of them has lost. The
Reagan administration, of course, has
been at war with drugs since its incep
tion. As with Vietnam, victory after vic
tory has been declared, democracy re
stored to Florida, search-and-destroy
missions launched in distant Bolivia
and yet another crisis is upon us.
For its show, the administration is
willing to spend maybe $100 million.
The Democrats, who know a thing or
two about spending money, are talking
one or two billion dollars — and surely
they are closer to the mark. Drug-treat
ment centers are bursting and have long
waiting lists and probably there is not a
police department in the country that
has the manpower to put drug pushers
in jail — not that theie is jail space for
them anyway.
But slow down. This drug “crisis” is
no sudden thing. It has been with us a
long time and may, in fact, be abating
among certain groups. If monevuBvvhere \
spent, it ought to lie spentwiseh-^| irl ° ,ne
with some thought. If pushers 1
to he jailed wholesale, then uteBj H lu 1
the prisons to hold them? And,ifsBj^'i | j''''
failed
‘We mu
KponsibU
■White 1
lout $14
la
anti stiff penalties have
past, why does anyone think thet
bring success now?
As for the president, he appt
the beneficial uses of public
and of role models. But he ijnoti Jease. w !
model for your average crack Klf'ut SHh
and neither, for that matter, isu.|
erage government worker. All
program will not in any wayamel
the drug problem. It will only prat
living f or civil-liberties lawyers.
Drugs like cocaine and crack art* hj.ri i
rious problem — both to societyar« ] a v maker
people addicted. There is enonM-atmg q
cost involved — and enormousfBeparttru
Drugs destroy the people who use® )r a pro
and the destruction can spread,Bear here
ripples in a pond, to family men
and friends.
1 he president and Congressare
in thinking that government has an
gation to solve the drug-abusepn
if it can. But it would betlievvorst
crueltly if, either with outlandish
stunts or by hastily spending
worthless programs, both Congresn
the president thought something
been accomplished.
I he government seems hooki
nonsense programs that make
ticians feel good. Where’s theteJ
that?
he Se
(Buttee or
Binding I
For a while cocaine was the pre
ferred drug of the affluent, but there is
reason to believe it no longer is. The af
fluent are not dumb — that is why they
Mail Call
Then as now
EDITOR:
Hats off on The Battalion's editorial “A cow most
sacred.” If Gib Lewis’ plan is adopted Texas A&M will be
forced to make drastic cuts in all areas, and we can forget
about our aim to achieve world-class status. Keep writing
about this; the students must be informed about potential
consequences to them.
Loren Stef fy is right on the mark in “Liberals not only
violators of free speech on campus.” When I was an
undergraduate, late 1960s and early 1970s, the radicals
did the same thing they are trying to do today — then they
were self-appointed “liberals,” and today they are
“conservatives.” Tolerance and free expression are the
most important aspects of any university, and must be
protected for all opinions.
Terry Anderson
he doesn’t know any pretty girls. Poor Pallmeyer doesn't
know 7 any girls.
By the way, about his editorial on fruit pies. First, !
think he better stay away from the Battalion cafeteria.
Second, he’s a dimented little jerk, isn’t he?
Let’s see, Pallmeyer would rather go to Vietnam thanj
eat. Sorry, I can’t buy that. Also, he would eat a “pie 1
hell” but he wouldn’t give it to the world’s most sadistic
killer since Hitler. It lie tries to deny it, I’ll quote him:“l
keep eating them.”
1 am sorry for these remarks. Usually I do not enjoy I
pointing out a person’s bad (in Pallmeyer’s case only) trai
However, I have no trouble at all believing that Pallmeyel
can not kick a football or fly a kite. What a waste of an Afl
Brooks ’90
EDITOR'S NOTE: Moammar Gadhafi hardly can bed
sideved “the world’s most sadistic killer since Hiller."!"
Some bad traits
front runners for this title would be Mao Tse-TungM
Josef Stalin.
EDITOR:
After reading the Aug. 7 issue of The Battalion, I came
to a conclusion.! completely agree with the letter by M J.
Shively. However, Pallmeyer has a good excuse. You see,
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. Tlteedii*
staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but willd
every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be
and must include the address and telephone number of the writer.