McColl mom earns perfect score on national teacher exam

HARTSVILLE — Sue Rogers, an early childhood education major at Coker College, has done what only 2.3 percent of all Praxis II test takers have achieved according to the state’s Office of Educator Certification: score a perfect 200 on the national teacher exam.

Rogers, a senior in Coker’s Evening and Extended Studies Program, also ranks in the top 15 percent of all test takers who took the Praxis II — Principles of Learning and Teaching: Grades K-6 exam. For that achievement, Rogers received the “ETS Recognition of Excellence” certificate.

The Praxis Series assessments are used for teacher licensure and certification.

Applicants entering approved teacher preparation programs must take the Praxis I: Pre-Professional Skills Tests, according to the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the agency that administers the tests.

The Praxis I tests measure basic academic skills, while the Praxis II exams measure general and subject-specific knowledge that K–12 educators will teach.

The state Department of Education requires prospective teachers to take the Praxis II exams as part of the state’s certification process.

When learning of her perfect score, Rogers said she couldn’t believe she answered all of the questions correctly.

“I thought I did OK, but you never know because it’s so subjective,” Rogers said. “I was really shocked.

“I knew that I was prepared,” she said. “I had no doubt that Coker (College) had provided me with that quality education that I needed to know, not only for my future career, but for that test.”

Rogers said she took the test at Francis Marion University in the spring and used study materials, the ETS Web site material as well as her notes and textbooks used from her classes at Coker.

Rogers, a divorced mother of one, is a semester away from earning a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education.

She said she decided she wanted to return to college and finish her bachelor’s degree because she loved to teach and she needed to do something that would help with her daughter’s future.

By returning to school, Rogers has shown her 10-year-old daughter, Payton, it’s never too late to learn.

Rogers, a McColl resident, was a teacher assistant at Washington Park Elementary School in Laurinburg, N.C., for the past 15 years.

In August, Rogers said she will begin student teaching at McColl Elementary/Middle School in Marlboro County.

Rogers said she is really excited about the future.

“I want to be one of those teachers that helps to foster that love for education,” she said. “I’ve been in third grade where children are struggling to read and where they don’t like school.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “I want to be the teacher that gets those children motivated and helps them to love school so that when they get to third grade and things get harder, that they’re not frustrated as much and not turned off (from learning).”

Rogers is a member of Kappa Delta Pi, an education honor society, and the Evening and Extended Studies Program Advisory Board.

She is also a Sunday school teacher and secretary of the administrative board at Main Street United Methodist Church in McColl.

On the Web

Coker College, www.coker.edu

Educational Testing Service, www.ets.org