Week #2 Prompt: Comparing Scholarly Article to News Article

This week's assignment was to find a newspaper article or blog and compare it with a scholarly article taking a careful look at delivery and style.  I chose two articles that had to do with teacher testing and certification requirements.

The Newspaper Article uses language that everyone can understand to communicate recent issues with the Professional Readiness Exam that the state of Michigan uses as part of the certification requirement to be a teacher.  The state and testing company just made changes to make the test more difficult so that we don't just have anyone teaching future generations.  According to the article, before the test modifications 82% of the teacher candidates passed.  After the modifications, that rate dropped to 26%.
In terms of delivery, the article was originally published on a Dean's blog and then made it's way to the Michigan news website as a news article.  I also know the article has been shared on social media websites by teacher candidates effected by the changes in the test.  The style is consistent with the delivery when considering the target audience.  It captures feelings and struggles teacher candidates are feeling while also explaining the need for a more difficult test.  It uses language and style appropriate for the online blog/news delivery.

The Scholarly Journal is clearly geared for people doing research on the relationship between teaching requirements and teacher quality.  It is structured much differently than the news article because it has an abstract, introduction, and multiple pieces of data to support research that was done.  The use of the scholarly style gives the audience a more credible lens to view the information with.  It also helps the author relate with the reader because the reader is likely reading to gain factual supported information regarding the relationship between teaching certification and teacher quality.  The reader is looking for the answers, and the author uses a scholarly style to relate to them by giving them credible answers.
In terms of delivery, this work is accessible on the internet through Science Direct.  This delivery method will attract the right audience because it is not a scholarly website rather than a blog or news website.  It was also published in a book called Economics of Education Review which makes the information even more credible and once again, focused on the intended audience.

Resources:
Heller, Donald. "Donald Heller: Restructured Professional Readiness Exam Means Changes for Michigan Teaching Programs (Guest Opinion)." MLive.com. N.p., 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.

Angrist, Joshua D., and Jonathan Guryan. "Does teacher testing raise teacher quality? Evidence from state certification requirements." Economics of Education Review 27.5 (2008): 483-503.