CBEST Test Preparation at California State University East Bay

California State University East Bay offers CBEST test preparation workshops if you happen to be close by.

Prepare for the California Basic Educational Skills Test, which is required for anyone seeking an educational credential in California.

NCR 9583: CBEST Math Workshop
NCR 9584: CBEST Reading Workshop
NCR 9585: CBEST Writing Workshop

Article by Malcolm Gladwell worth a look

Here’s an interesting article written by Malcolm Gladwell of the New Yorker. The article is about spotting talent. What interested me most about the article is the discussion about finding good teachers. He argues that good teachers are like good NFL quarterbacks – it isn’t clear how what is done in college will translate into the classroom or field, and he states rather flatly at one point that “no one knows what a person with the potential to be a great teacher looks like.”

Originally Posted by Malcolm Gladwell
the students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year’s worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half’s worth of material. That difference amounts to a year’s worth of learning in a single year. Teacher effects dwarf school effects: your child is actually better off in a “bad” school with an excellent teacher than in an excellent school with a bad teacher. Teacher effects are also much stronger than class-size effects.

Thoughts on Computer Administered CBEST

This may be helpful to someone considering the computer administered CBEST.

I just took the CBEST via computer at a testing center. The nice part is that I have my unofficial scores (they gave me a printout right after I finished the exam) 52 reading, 65 math, writing unknown. I personally liked taking it on computer. I could go back to any parts of the test at anytime during the testing period. In this internet age, the computer felt more ‘natural.’

You can find the original post here at atozteacherstuff.com.