Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant recently expressed his dissatisfaction with the low standards set by the state’s public universities for teacher candidates, according to CommercialAppeal.com.
Bryant attended a state College Board meeting last month, where he recommended incoming education students be required to score a minimum 21 on their ACT and have a 3.0 grade point average. 
Freshmen education majors in Mississippi public universities averaged a 20.8 on their ACT score in 2011. Currently, Mississippi State University’s college of education enrollment requires that students earn at least a 21 on their ACT and have a GPA of a 2.5 (or a 2.75 for elementary education) according to the college’s website.
So far, there is no definite plan for a change in the requirements to take place.
Dana Franz, Professor of secondary education at MSU, said she cannot determine the effect the requirement change will have on the department and on education students.
“I’ve only ever had a few students with an ACT score of less than 21,” Franz said, speaking of mathematics education students.  “But currently what we have in place for students who don’t make a 21 is Praxis 1, and you have to make a certain score on that.”
If the legislation were to be passed, Mississippi education students who scored below a 21 on their ACT would be required to make a 21 on the Praxis test.
She said students who are in the education program when the changes take place will be grandfathered in.
“Right now, we’re telling our students not to panic,” Franz said.
Franz said she believes the goal of the proposal is a positive one.
“We have to keep in mind that this was proposed because they want to make education in Mississippi better,” Franz said.  “We should all be about making education better. That should be our goal.”
Melanie Nelson, senior math education major, said she believes the idea will help provide Mississippi with more qualified teachers, therefore increasing the quality of education in the state.
“Mississippi has one of the lowest requirements for minimum Praxis scores to get a teaching license,” Nelson said. “The government thinks that these low expectations are a reason why our education system is performing so poorly on many standardized test scores.”
Nelson also said she believes the proposal will help with others’ perceptions of the college of education.
“Overall, this will help increase the quality of teachers, and hopefully show that this is not an ‘easy’ major, which many people perceive it to be,” Nelson said.