Should We Be Recertifying the "Certified?"

In early July, New York State's Education Commissioner took exception to the failure of many student teacher candidates to pass the State's "certification" standards. He threatened to remove the charters of colleges that consistently fail to produce qualified candidates.
Locally, in an effort to eliminate the suggestion of favoritism in their district's hiring practices, the Board of Education for Long Island's Connetqout School District thought to try something new. Those candidates applying for a teacher's slot would have to answer correctly at least 40 of 50 multiple choice reading comprehension questions, taken from prior Regents English exams...standard stuff for high school juniors.

On May 3rd (1997), 758 New York State "certified" teachers competed for one of the reported 35 available Connetquot openings. Of the 758 applicants, 556 (73%) FAILED!!!

Adding injury to already horrendous insult and almost unbelieveably, one failing candidate - an elementary school substitute teacher since 1989, is suing "for a full-time tenure-track elementary level teaching position [in the Connetqout District] and reimbursement of $2,500 in legal fees." She contends that "...test-takers who are young [and more recently familiar with such tests have an] advantage over older applicants." Obviously, she does not see her longevity and consequently more extensive use of the English language as any kind of an advantage.

Though the test results cannot be used to broad-brush stroke all "certified" teachers, the matter certainly warrants the attention of someone in the State Education Department. The entire process of "certification" may require a thorough looking into.

And, think about this. If the "certified" teachers proved unable to write a mere 80% on an English test, what do you suppose the uncertified graduates of teacher colleges would do with the same exam???