Teacher woes worst in poor schools <http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-teach10.html>
October 10, 2001 BY ROSALIND ROSSI EDUCATION REPORTER More evidence emerged Tuesday that the city's neediest school children are being shortchanged, with a report that indicates that poor, minority and low-scoring Chicago public high schools are less likely to hire properly certified teachers. The preliminary findings from Chicago ACORN, a community group, dovetailed with findings reported last month in a three-day Chicago Sun-Times series called Failing Teachers. The Sun-Times found that children in the state's lowest-scoring, highest-minority and highest-pov-erty schools were roughly five times more likely to have teachers who had flunked at least one certification test. "We would argue that the Sun-Times study combined with our study is starting to paint a picture of a school system where the students who are struggling the most and failing at the highest rates are getting some of the worst-prepared teachers,'' said Madeline Talbott, executive director of Chicago ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN created its own definition for "correctly certified'' and found that last school year, 22.3 percent of teachers in the city's 71 regular public high schools, or 1,221 of 5,464 full-time teachers, did not meet its definition. It defined "correctly'' certified as someone who carried a high school certificate and taught high school students or someone with a special education certificate who taught high school special education. Those counted as "incorrectly certified'' included 709 teachers on transitional bilingual or substitute teacher certificates, which temporarily or indefinitely waive two certification tests; and 193 teachers for whom no certificate was listed in the state's teacher certification file, said Kathryn Talley, an institutional researcher who did the data analysis for ACORN. The study found that the higher the number of minority, low-scoring and low-income students in a school, the more likely that school was to employ "incorrectly certified'' teachers. At one small Chicago high school that was not named, Talley said, 57 percent of teachers were not correctly certified. At Farragut and Crane High Schools, 44 percent of teachers were not correctly certified, according to the ACORN study. Region 1--the city's northernmost of six regions and the one with the fewest low-income students--had the best record, with only 15 percent of high school teachers incorrectly certified, according to ACORN. But in Region 4, which has schools among the highest poverty rates in the city, 29 percent of high school teachers had incorrect certification. And when ACORN divided the city into thirds, nearly a third of high school teachers on the West Side, or 30.4 percent, had incorrect certifications, compared to nearly a fifth--or 19.4 percent--on the North Side and 22.6 percent on the South Side. Using a similar, but less stringent, measuring stick, the Sun-Times series reported that last school year, 15 percent of all full-time Chicago public school teachers were teaching on certificates that waived state tests temporarily or indefinitely. Using that same measuring stick, Schools Accountability Chief Phil Hansen said only 7 to 8 percent of this year's teachers have such certificates. Hansen said he had some questions about ACORN's definitions but since the Sun-Times series, "we've been out in front'' on the certification issue and "we're committed to increasing the number of certified teachers in all our classrooms.'' Crane Assistant Principal John Chana said the school's teachers helped Crane get off academic probation a few years back. Some Crane teachers ACORN counted as "incorrectly certified'' may be in alternative programs endorsed by the Chicago Board of Education, he said. -- 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/>
