Defining literacy - Lessons from high-stakes teacher testing

Teacher educators face a dilemma: How do we prepare preservice teachers to pass new high-stakes certification tests when these tests are often based o n philosophical perspectives that run counter to our own beliefs about lite racy, learning, and teaching. In this article, the authors offer an inquiry -oriented approach that uses the lens of the New Literacy Studies to help p rospective teachers simultaneously prepare for and critique high-stakes sta ndardized tests such as the Communication and Literacy Skills (CLS) portion of the Massachusetts Educator Certification Tests. The authors describe a specific activity, inviting preservice teachers to explore the social natur e of literacies, investigate the characteristics of the CLS, and reflect on this type of high-stakes assessment. After providing a critique of the CLS test based on this type of activity, the authors offer recommendations for more extended activities to be used in teacher education courses.