In a field test, 19% of them failed the test (or, as they'd put it: "around 1 in 12" :) ).
> The EQAO led a field test between February 18 and March 7, 2020 to monitor, assess, and
refine the implementation of the MPT before it was launched. A total of 4,065 applicants
participated in the field test, with 81 percent successfully completing the MPT. The field
test allowed the EQAO to test MPT items with the applicant population and collect data to
establish items as valid and defensible.
IMO, if you fail this test, you have no business holding a teaching certificate that would allow you to teach math. It seems like the issue is that teaching certificates in that area do not adequately distinguish teachers who are certified to teach math up to 6th grade (where a general certificate is all that's required). Fixing that would seem to (me at least to) allow the testing to continue to be qualified to teach math. Fail the math competency test and you can teach other subjects. (That might not be ideal, but it's way better than having teachers who aren't competent in math teaching math.)
The problem is that in Ontario teachers are not differentiated until around high school, meaning a teacher has to be responsible for teaching up to that level in a general, well-rounded way.
I sure wouldn't want a teacher who has fewer requirements in math proficiency than the very students they're teaching. Imagine students receiving harder math tests than what a teacher would be comfortable with.
When I was a child in Ontario in the 1980s we had a single teacher for each class that taught all subjects except French, so (except for the French teacher) there weren't really any non-Math teachers. I imagine that things have changed a little, but probably not enough to except the preponderance of elementary teachers from being expected to be competent math teachers.
> The EQAO led a field test between February 18 and March 7, 2020 to monitor, assess, and refine the implementation of the MPT before it was launched. A total of 4,065 applicants participated in the field test, with 81 percent successfully completing the MPT. The field test allowed the EQAO to test MPT items with the applicant population and collect data to establish items as valid and defensible.
IMO, if you fail this test, you have no business holding a teaching certificate that would allow you to teach math. It seems like the issue is that teaching certificates in that area do not adequately distinguish teachers who are certified to teach math up to 6th grade (where a general certificate is all that's required). Fixing that would seem to (me at least to) allow the testing to continue to be qualified to teach math. Fail the math competency test and you can teach other subjects. (That might not be ideal, but it's way better than having teachers who aren't competent in math teaching math.)