Teacher tests no longer secret <http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-skul25.html>
October 25, 2001 BY ROSALIND ROSSI AND KATE N. GROSSMAN STAFF REPORTERS Chicago School Board members Wednesday approved proposals to crack down on new teachers, plans the head of the Chicago Teachers Union derided as "off-target.'' One plan is intended to alert principals to prospective teachers who struggled repeatedly to pass their certification tests--a problem spotlighted in the Chicago Sun-Times' "Failing Teachers" series. It requires teaching applicants to disclose the number of tries needed to pass both tests required for a full teaching certificate. Another plan requires full-time substitute teachers who have not passed all their certification tests to earn full credentials within two years or face the loss of their jobs. Although the majority of teachers eventually passed all of their tests, some had flunked three, five or 10 tests, and one out of 10 Chicago teachers tested since 1988 had failed a simple teacher test of basic skills at least once. Principals who hired such teachers had no idea of their test record, the Sun-Times reported, because under the state's Freedom of Information Act, teacher test scores and the number of test tries are confidential. However, Chicago Board of Education attorneys contend they have the right to set requirements for new applicants, and that can include waivers of test confidentiality. Their new policy gives the district access only to the number of tries needed to pass each teacher test, not the actual test score. Board of Education officials announced in early October they expected the proposal to go into effect immediately, but Wednesday, they asked board members to officially sign off on it. CTU President Deborah Lynch called the changes "off-target'' and a "totally bureaucratic'' response to the Sun-Times series. "To me, a pass is a pass,'' Lynch said. Many of the state's biggest teacher test flunkers worked in Chicago as full-time substitutes or were employed statewide on transitional bilingual certificates that temporarily waive teacher tests, the Sun-Times found. Full-time substitutes clearly need a crackdown, Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan said. Last year, the system employed more than 2,100 such teachers without full credentials, a number that has since been reduced by 450. "We think two years is a real good point for people to get in and get out with their certification,'' he said. Beverly Tunney, president of the Chicago Principals Association, questioned whether the two-year limit was "realistic.'' In other business Wednesday, board members approved a new high school promotion policy that gives a controversial Chicago-written high school exam, called the Chicago Academic Standards Exam, or CASE, more weight in student grades. The new policy requires teachers to reduce by 10 percent the final grade of any student who flunked a CASE exam. The policy could lower the grades of thousands of students, officials conceded. Also under the policy, high school students would have to pass at least three of four core courses--math, science, English and social science--to be promoted. Also, Keith Sanders, executive director of the state Board of Higher Education, said he may suggest limiting the number of attempts on teacher certification tests and making teacher pass rates public at the board's December meeting. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
