|
|
Testing Teachers.
Posted:
May 8, 2001 9:27 PM
|
|
F.Y.I.
Judge clears way for math teacher tests
by Ed Hayward
Boston Hearld - Tuesday, May 8, 2001
The Bay State moved a step closer to giving
competency tests to veteran teachers yesterday when a Superior Court
judge quashed a move by two teachers unions to block a skills test for
educators in districts where student math scores don't add up.
Suffolk County Judge Patrick J. King issued a
declaratory judgment that rejected the claims of the two unions that
the Board of Education's math teacher testing plan overstepped its
authority and violated the constitutional rights of the state's
120,000 teachers.
Board Chairman James A. Peyser said he hopes the
ruling will allow theDepartment of Education to move ahead with the
policy approved May, 23, 2000.
``I'm certainly encouraged that we can move forward
with a policy the board adopted a year ago,'' Peyser said. ``At a
minimum, what this ruling demonstrates is the process we used to get
to this point was open, deliberative and fair.''
The board voted to require the testing of math
teachers in district found to have ``low performing'' mathematics
programs where more than 30 percent of the students - minus
non-English speakers or new arrivals - fail the math section of the
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam.
With teachers crammed in the library of the Monson
Junior/Senior High School, former Gov. Paul Cellucci made rare a
appearance in order to lobby the board to fulfill a pledge he had made
months earlier in his State of the State speech.
Both the Massachusetts Teachers Assocation and the
Massachusetts Federation of Teachers argued against the regulations
and took their fight to court.
MTA Vice President Catherine Boudreau reacted to the
decision prior to reading King's 13-page opinion. ``We're
disappointed because we believe the best way to evaluate whether
teachers are doing a good job or not is by their performance in the
classroom, not by taking a test,'' Boudreau said.
Boudreau said the union has the right to appeal, and
that lawyers were reviewing the ruling in order to made a decision
about whether to go forward with more legal action.
She said the policy has more to do with fulfilling
Cellucci's long-standing attempt to test veteran educators than with
student improvement.
Up until the math teacher test vote, the state had
only developed tests for teachers entering the profession.
``This is just another return to the original agenda:
test teachers,'' said Boudreau. ``It's a simplistic approach. You
don't measure anybody with one test.''
The focus on mathematics instruction grew out of
results of the 1999 MCAS exam, when state officials declared a crisis
in math.
On the 2000 MCAS, 45 percent of the 10th-graders
failed the math exam, a startling number, since high-schoolers will
need to pass both the math and English portions of the exam in order
to graduate beginning in 2003.
That same year, 39 percent of the eighth-graders
failed the MCAS math exam, revealing a stunning drop off from the
skills of fourth-graders, who passed the math exam at a rate of 82
percent that year.
``The court has said the board has significant
authority to make these decisions, especially where there is fair
reason to believe a weakness needs to be addressed,'' Peyser said.
``I'm encouraged the process set in place will go forward now.''
|
|
