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This is Part Three of the Chicago
Sun-Times study into teacher competency.
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.''
To read Part Four of this research, “The Results,”click HERE
To return to Part One of this research, “Background,” click HERE
To return Part Two of this research, “Questions,” click HERE
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