5,243 Illinois teachers failed key exams
September 6, 2001
BY ROSALIND ROSSI, BECKY BEAUPRE AND KATE N. GROSSMAN STAFF REPORTERS
This past spring, a group of Chicago children learned their lessons from a
teacher who had flunked 24 of 25 tests of teacher competence.
In Elgin District 46, students studied the English language with a teacher
who had failed 21 of 21 tests for teachers. That included nine of nine Basic
Skills tests--an exam so easy, experts say, an eighth- or ninth-grader
should pass it on the first try.
And in Aurora last school year, a group of elementary children took classes
from a teacher who failed 15 of 16 teacher competency tests.
The three teachers were among hundreds employed full time last year in
Illinois public schools who had not passed both a Basic Skills test and a
subject matter test. Both must be passed for a regular, or "initial,"
Illinois teaching certificate.
Far more--nearly 5,250--failed at least one Illinois certification test,
though most went on to pass later. Such teachers stood at the head of
classrooms and taught more than 180,000 Illinois children last spring, a
Chicago Sun-Times investigation found.
With calls for improved student achievement echoing across the state and
nation, the Chicago Sun-Times analyzed the achievement of teachers on tests
meant to gauge their competence. It examined the results of nearly 166,000
Illinois certification tests taken by more than 67,000 public school
teachers who taught full time last school year--more than half of the
state's public teaching force. All had been tested since Illinois began
giving its own certification exams in 1988.
The analysis is believed to be the nation's first effort to document how
often some teachers have failed certificationtests.
The Sun-Times found that teachers who struggled to pass their exams can pop
up anywhere. Last school year, those who needed at least four tries to pass
a single certification test were teaching children in a North Shore junior
high, a Palatine special-education classroom and a Hoffman Estates high
school.
But the state's neediest children--those in the lowest-scoring,
highest-minority and highest-poverty schools--are roughly five times more
likely to encounter teachers who stumbled in efforts to pass the tests. And
Chicago public school students are 3-1/2 times more likely than suburban
ones to have such a teacher.
Loopholes in state law allowed some to teach without passing all of their
tests. Or their administrators just ignored the law by keeping them in
classrooms year round. Others passed, but after so many attempts that some
experts questioned how effective they could be in the classroom.
With the nation poised on the brink of its largest teacher shortage in
history, some fear the use of certification loopholes that waive testing
requirements will become more commonplace. And locally, a two-year effort to
toughen up Illinois teacher tests, which begins Sept. 15, could further
aggravate the problem.
Meanwhile, across the nation, researchers are gathering mounting evidence
that teacher quality counts immensely.
A study of Texas teachers tested in 1986, for example, indicated that
teacher test scores were a significant predictor of student test scores. A
1996 Tennessee study found that elementary math students taught by the
least-effective teachers for three consecutive years wound up more than 50
percentile points behind students taught by the least-effective ones.
Based on his 1992 analysis of student test scores in Gary, economist Eric
Hanushek of Stanford University's Hoover Institution estimated the
difference between having a very effective and a very ineffective teacher
can be a full year's worth of achievement. And if one year with an extremely
ineffective teacher is followed by years and years of only "typical''
teachers, students will "never make up that difference,'' Hanushek said.
"They will be permanently behind.''
As the school year begins, parents may wonder: "Who's teaching my child?" In
some cases, they may not like the answer.
The state's worst teacher-test flunker failed 24 of 25 teacher
tests--including 11 of 12 Basic Skills tests and 12 of 12 tests on teaching
learning-disabled children. Yet, last year, that teacher was assigned to
teach learning-disabled children in Chicago, state records show.
In another Chicago elementary school, struggling students were taught
remedial reading last school year by a teacher who flunked 18 of 19 teacher
tests, including eight of nine Basic Skills tests.
The state's second-biggest test flunker may well have dreams that extend
beyond the classroom and into the principal's office. This educator--a
guidance counselor in a Chicago public high school--flunked 21 of 24 tests,
most of them for teachers, but managed, on the second try, to pass the
general administrative test needed to be a principal.
Illinois Education Supt. Glenn "Max'' McGee, who is leaving that job Dec.
31, called the number of times some teachers failed their tests "an
eye-opener.'' He was especially troubled by the concentration of struggling
teachers in the state's neediest schools.
"Our most needy students need our best teachers,'' McGee said. "We cannot
compromise on teacher quality.''
'A cruel phenomenon'
Statewide, nearly 8 percent of all teachers who took tests since 1988 have
flunked at least one, the Sun-Times study found. The vast majority passed
all of their tests the first time, and nearly 2,000 more passed after
multiple attempts.
But 727 teachers never met a competence test they could pass. They flunked
every one, be it the Basic Skills test or a subject matter exam. Even
more--868 teachers--struggled in vain to pass just the Basic Skills test,
which is taken more often than other tests. The exam is so easy, the state
has scrapped it for a tougher one.
"It very much concerns me if they are teaching and they have not passed the
Basic Skills test,'' McGee said.
He and other experts note that a test-taker could have a bad day, but the
unequal distribution of teachers who flunked troubles many.
The achievement gap among teachers mirrors the achievement gap among
students, the Sun-Times analysis indicates. The lowest-scoring,
highest-minority, lowest-income schools were roughly five times more likely
than high-scoring, low-minority and higher-income schools to employ teachers
who had flunked at least one test.
Anthony Bryk, director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, said
the ''clustering'' of flunking teachers in the state's neediest schools is
''truly alarming, more so than if the [8 percent] were randomly distributed.
''It's a cruel phenomenon,'' Bryk said. ''The places that most need good
teachers often are least likely to attract and hold on to them.''
The disparity in teacher test results across Illinois confirms national
studies of a pattern of assigning less-qualified teachers to the nation's
neediest children, said Linda Darling-Hammond, executive director of the
National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, who is one of the
nation's best-known standard-bearers for teacher quality. Illinois' unequal
distribution of struggling teachers, Darling-Hammond said, is ''immoral.
It's illegal. And it's a national disgrace. It's certainly a disgrace to
Illinois.''
The Sun-Times also found a huge gap between Chicago and suburban teachers,
with nearly a fifth of all Chicago teachers flunking at least one teacher
test--3-1/2 times the suburban average of 5.4 percent.
"It is certainly not what we want,'' said Arne Duncan, the new Chicago
Public Schools chief. "It's absolutely disappointing. . . . But every move
we've made is to strengthen the teaching force across the city and,
particularly, in those needy schools.''
Financially and academically struggling East St. Louis schools had the worst
teacher-flunk rate in the state, with 24 percent of the teachers tested
since 1988 flunking at least one certification test. But only 25 percent of
the district's teachers were tested during that period.
Though Chicago posted the fifth-highest flunk rate in the state--19
percent--92 Chicago schools had worse flunk rates than East St. Louis. In
ranking schools and districts on flunk rates, the Sun-Times used only
districts and schools with 20 teachers or more tested since 1988. This
protected the identity of teachers in small schools or districts.
At one largely Hispanic Chicago school, more than half of all teachers
tested since 1988 had flunked at least one test.
A prominent critic of Chicago's schools says we are asking more of our kids
than of their teachers.
"It's unfair for Chicago to hold kids back based on a standardized test when
they may be taught by a teacher who can't pass a similar test," said Julie
Woestehoff of Parents United for Responsible Education. "We keep hearing
they are holding our children to high standards. What standards are adults
being held to?"
Passing hurdle No. 1
The first test toward earning an initial teaching certificate in
Illinois--the Basic Skills test--is so easy, several experts say, an eighth-
or ninth-grader should be able to pass it. McGee had no quarrel with that
assessment.
Yet one of every 10 Chicago Public Schools teachers tested since 1988 have
flunked the Basic Skills test at least once.
The Sun-Times gave a sample version of the old Basic Skills test to four
experts after state Board of Education officials said the sample was at the
same difficulty level as the real test. Those experts were: Patte Barth, who
has examined teacher subject matter tests across the nation for the
Education Trust, a Washington, D.C., research and advocacy group; Bryk, a
University of Chicago education professor and nationally known school
researcher; Barbara Radner, an expert partner to two dozen struggling
Chicago public schools and director of DePaul University's Center for Urban
Education, and Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education
Policy at the Brookings Institution.
''This is a test designed to screen out completely illiterate teaching
candidates, so the fact that someone passes this test is not something to
throw a party over,"Loveless said. "It doesn't mean they are a good
candidate. It simply means they are not illiterates.''
Radner said she could understand if someone flunked the test once or twice
because of nervousness or personal strain or a ''math phobia,'' because
candidates must get 70 percent of answers correct in each of four
sections--grammar, reading, writing and math.
Others noted that teachers may do poorly if the test is the second of two
they take in one day. One or even two failures could be explained for a
variety of reasons that would not impact teaching, most experts agreed.
But how college graduates could flunk a basic skills test puzzles Mary
James, a parent of three Chicago public school children and an organizer for
ACORN, a community group.
''God, that's basic skills,'' James said. ''It's like the teachers are
learning at the same time the children are learning. Something there is
wrong."
Many Illinois colleges in recent years have begun giving the test as a
requirement for admission to their colleges of education, which means some
relatively new teachers may have taken the test as early as their sophomore
year in college.
That could be one reason why the failure rate jumped in 1997--from 5 percent
in April of that year to 9 percent in July. The rate has moved upward ever
since and now hovers around 15 percent.
Efforts to add more minority educators and to recruit teachers from foreign
shores may also have contributed to the spike in test flunks, experts said.
But because the Basic Skills test is so easy, Bryk said, ''an individual who
flunks this kind of exam part way through college--it really raises some
questions. . . . If you couldn't pass this at the end of high school, you
probably shouldn't get out of high school.''
Attorney Elaine Siegel said she represented 25 bilingual teachers in the
1990s who flunked the Basic Skills tests multiple times, yet won "superior"
or "excellent" ratings from their principals. The test, she said, just
didn't capture "what those teachers were able to do in the classroom."
Many of the state's biggest teacher-test flunkers held either a transitional
bilingual education certificate, which waives the two certification tests
for up to eight years, or a Chicago substitute teacher certificate, which
waives all tests indefinitely. Despite the waiver, many take the tests to
attain full certification and the job and pay improvements it would bring.
One former bilingual certificate holder racked up some of the lowest scores
examined by the Chicago Sun-Times. The teacher flunked five of five Basic
Skills tests and three of three elementary subject matter tests while
working on a transitional bilingual certificate.
After that certificate expired, the teacher continued to teach for at least
two more years on a Chicago substitute certificate and flunked eight more
Basic Skills tests and three more elementary tests.
Grand total: failure in 19 of 19 tests.
After teaching for nearly eight years, this teacher scored as low as a 12
out of a possible 100 in math, followed by a 23 three months later. Both
scores were lower than the statistical guess level of 25. Other scores
included a 27 in grammar; a 32, a 33 and a 35 in reading, and three 40s in
writing.
The identity of this teacher and others cited by the Sun-Times is protected
under state law. The data, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act,
did not name flunking teachers.
That teacher who scored as low as 12 in math, Bryk said, should not be
teaching. Period.
''It takes a lot of things to become a good teacher,'' Bryk said. ''But it's
hard to imagine anyone being a good teacher without passing this test.
''Anyone can have a bad day. . . . But when you have that kind of record,
you'd have to say this person has such weak basic skills that they should
not be teaching children, regardless of what other positive attributes this
person might have,'' Bryk said. ''You can fail it once, you can fail it
twice, but if you consistently fail these tests, these are people who
probably shouldn't be teachers.''
Other professions allow candidates to flunk a test multiple times before
passing. Even Mayor Daley and John F. Kennedy Jr. each flunked the bar exam
twice. But you can't practice law until you've passed.
Barth said the bar for passing the Illinois Basic Skills tests--and that of
most state subject matter tests examined by the Education Trust--is
"low-level."
"If it takes somebody a couple times to pass a good test, like a CPA exam
[to become a certified public accountant] . . . there's no shame in it.''
But, Barth said, "When a test is a low-level test, as yours seems to be . .
. a good performance doesn't really tell you anything, but a poor
performance should raise some flags."
Teachers sound off
On a hot muggy Saturday last July 7, hundreds of would-be teachers gathered
at McCormick Place to take the last administration of the now-defunct
Illinois Basic Skills Test.
Many said it was too easy. Some said it was too long. A few said it was
"just right.''
''The math was almost ridiculous,'' said Francesca Gambino, 20, a junior at
Loyola University, after she emerged from the test. ''It was below high
school level, with lots of fractions and reading charts. That's not even
math. . . .
''If someone does fail, that does say something about the public schools.
It's called basic skills--it's not rocket science. It's common sense.''
Education major Jackie Lewis, 32, a senior at National-Lewis University,
emerged from the test to report that she wouldn't stand for anything less
than a teacher who had passed the now-defunct Basic Skills test. She is
desperately trying to break the cycle of poverty for her 12-year-old
daughter, who attends Skinner Classical, a Chicago magnet school.
''I grew up in poverty, and I want [my daughter] to be more educated than
me,'' Lewis said. "I would hate for her to be in a class without a good
teacher.
''I'm about to be in control of a child's life. If I can't pass this test, I
have no business being in front of a class."
Others contended that just because a person flunked the old Basic Skills
test--but eventually passed--doesn't mean he or she won't be a competent
teacher.
''I think it's unfair to label people for not passing the test--saying they
are incompetent teachers,'' said Quanita Crawford, 24, a junior at
Northeastern Illinois University. ''You can't lump everyone together who
failed. I only missed the math [the first time]. . . .
''I don't think it should be made harder. It's not hard [now]. It's just
right. But you have so many people taking it--foreigners, etc.--if you make
it harder, you'll have less teachers.''
Nesa Chappelle, senior policy analyst for the National Education
Association, the nation's largest teachers union, said she knows "quite a
few people who flunked [teacher tests] three times and are wonderful
teachers.'' Chappelle said she had not seen any Illinois teacher competence
tests.
Chappelle said she's "smart as a whip'' and now has a Ph.D. But she flunked
her state's subject matter test the first time because she had never been
trained on how to write a short-essay answer. After brushing up on that
skill, she passed the subject matter test on the second try.
"I grew up in Washington, D.C., in a depressed area. My problem was I was
never exposed . . . to how to write a constructive response essay. I was
never exposed to test-taking skills--not in high school or college,''
Chappelle said.
But Deborah Lynch, newly elected president of the Chicago Teachers Union,
said ''even one failure should be a concern,'' be it on the Basic Skills
test or any of 53 tests of subject matter, the second test hurdle to
obtaining an ''initial'' Illinois teaching certificate.
''Even one teacher struggling in a school is too much,'' Lynch said. ''It
would appear that somebody who has failed an entry test multiple times would
have trouble in the classroom, even if they eventually passed.''
Lynch said the Sun-Times data confirmed ''what national research shows--that
the correlation between student achievement and teacher quality is a very
strong one.''
Lynch said only teachers who have passed both the Basic Skills and subject
matter tests should be teaching the state's children. And, like McGee, she
expressed concern that the state's neediest children were winding up with
the teachers who struggled the most with their own certification tests.
"We have to take a stand on having qualified people in our classrooms,''
Lynch said.
''We should make sure people are qualified before they are given the
incredible responsibility of taking over a classroom and the lives of 30
children. It's an incredible responsibility that demands infinitely skilled
teachers.''
Failing Teachers
Elementary, junior high/middle, high school and special education teachers
who took at least one Basic Skills or subject matter tests between July 1988
and April 2001.
Illinois Chicago Suburbs
All tests
Percent of teachers who failed at least one test 7.80% 19%
5.40%
Number of teachers tested 67,118 13,777 30,583
Number of teachers who failed at least one test 5,243 2,637
1,665
Number of teachers who failed three or more tests 1,308 855
289
Basic Skills only
Percent of teachers who failed at least one Basic Skills test 3.20%
10% 1.70%
Number of teachers who took at least one Basic Skills test 66,769
13,581 30,489
Number of teachers who failed at least one Basic Skills test 2,132
1,371 529
Number of teachers who failed three or more Basic Skills tests 414
324 65
Number of teachers who never passed any Basic Skills test taken 868
635 176
SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times analysis of Illinois State Board of Education data
Subject matter
In addition to the Basic Skills test, new teachers must take a test in the
area in which they plan to teach. These are the subject matter tests taken
most frequently by elementary, junior high/middle, high school and special
education teachers between July 1988 and April 2001.
Teachers % of teachers
Teachers who failed who failed
tested at least one at least one
Elementary 28,788 1,044 4%
Learning Disabilities 8,403 762 9%
Social/Emotional Disorders 6,709 138 2%
Educable Mentally Handicapped 4,155 236 6%
Early Childhood 4,125 226 5%
SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times analysis of Illinois State Board of Education data
Top Flunkers: Who are they?
Seventy-four public educators--teachers and administrators--failed 10 or
more tests between July 1988 and April 2001. Includes educators who were
employed in an Illinois public school at the beginning of the 2000-2001
school year.
* A special education teacher in Chicago failed the most tests, flunking
24 of 25 tests taken--including 11 of the 12 Basic Skills tests attempted.
* More than 17 percent (13) of the top flunkers were bilingual education
teachers. Bilingual education teachers account for only 1.4 percent of all
educators in Illinois.
* More than 85 percent (63) of the top flunkers were in Chicago. Chicago
accounts for only 18 percent of educators in Illinois.
* As a group, the 74 top flunkers took a total of 1,056 tests--and failed
a total of 957. That's an average of nearly 13 failures per person.
SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times analysis of Illinois State Board of Education
data.
Copyright © The Sun-Times Company
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed.
WHAT WE DID
The Chicago Sun-Times analyzed the pass-fail records for nearly 416,000
Basic Skills and subject matter tests taken by prospective educators between
July 1988 and April 2001, as well as all available records on teaching
assignments and certification for educators employed in Illinois public
schools near the beginning of the 2000-2001 school year. Educators were not
identified by name. The data were obtained from the Illinois State Board of
Education after five months of Freedom of Information Act requests.
The analysis focused most heavily on the pass-fail records of 67,118
elementary, middle-junior high, high school and special education teachers
who were employed in 2000-01 and tested during the past 13 years. Testing
data were available for only about half of all current teachers; those
certified prior to 1988 may never have been required to take a test. The
Sun-Times also analyzed the raw scores of tests taken between July 1999 and
January 2001, the only period for which such detailed data were available.
A small number of teachers were listed as working in more than one school or
district, typically because they were employed by more than one school or
district or because they had recently switched jobs. They were included in
totals for each district in which they were listed, but were counted only
once in statewide totals.
The number of pupils taught by teachers who had flunked at least one test
was calculated by multiplying each of those teachers by the average
third-grade, eighth-grade or high school class size at their schools,
according to 2000 data. When a school average was not available, the state
average for that grade was used. An average class size of 10 was used for
each special education teacher.
It was assumed that each teacher taught only one class, except for high
school teachers, who were assumed to have taught five classes each.
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