By now, I'm sure you've all heard about the hapless school superintendent in Lawrence, MA, who failed to pass a literacy test that is required of all teachers. Still, I can't help but take a shot at this story myself...
Superintendent of Schools Wilfredo T. Laboy, who recently put two dozen teachers on unpaid leave for failing a basic English proficiency test, has himself flunked a required literacy test three times, The Eagle-Tribune reported Sunday. Laboy, who called his failing scores ''frustrating'' and ''emotional,'' blamed a lack of preparation and concentration, and his lack of English skills. Spanish is his first language.
Interesting, isn't it, how his "lack of English skills" is the last thing listed here as his reasons for flunking? And why are we supposed to be sympathetic to his "frustration" when he's placed teachers on unpaid leave for flunking the thing? He should have been the first to take this test, if only to judge for himself whether or not the test was valid.
State Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said he is aware of Laboy's troubles with the test, but would not say how many chances Laboy would be given to pass or what the consequences of another failure could be. He commended Laboy on an ''excellent job'' leading the district, but said ''he's going to have to pass.''
Sounds like those teachers who claim that kids are doing "excellent classwork," while also flunking the basic skills exams. However, perhaps I'm being unfair. Perhaps leadership for this district doesn't require much in the way of literacy skills, which is a scary thought indeed.
Since 1998, all educators from teachers to superintendents have had to pass the Communications and Literacy Skills Test, which measures basic reading and writing skills, including vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, spelling and capitalization. Laboy barely passed the reading section on his second attempt, scoring the minimum required grade, he said this week. He also failed the writing portion three times, and a section requiring test-takers to transcribe a passage read over an audiotape, using proper punctuation and spelling.
Ouch! Is this the test from hell, or does Laboy really need to brush up on his English skills? The test objectives are here, so let's see for ourselves.
The subtests are Reading and Writing - that's pretty straightforward. "Determine the meanings of words and phrases." "Understand the main idea and supporting details in written material." "Recognize effective sentences." We're not talking rocket science, or tricky testing mumbo-jumbo here. We're talking figuring out what the main point of a passage is, or recognizing a run-on sentence.
And here's the test information booklet. Scroll down to the bottom for the sample multiple-choice and free-response items. The items aren't all easy - certainly, defining "democracy" is harder than defining "abolish" - but the items still should be within reach of anyone with a college degree, especially someone who is working in a school superintendent position.
''What brought me down was the rules of grammar and punctuation,'' Laboy said. ''English being a second language for me, I didn't do well in writing. If you're not an English teacher, you don't look at the rules on a regular basis.''
However, if you use English on a regular basis, you should be familiar with the rules. This "But-I'm-not-an-English-teacher" excuse sounds familiar. It's what many adults use when they're caught making flagrant errors in English usage. It's obvious that they believe only English teachers should be required to write a coherent sentence and make themselves comprehensible. The excuse doesn't carry much weight with me, as you might have anticipated.
Laboy is in a directorial position in our public school system, and receives a salary of $156,560 a year for doing so. Is it too much to ask that such a person be able to pass a test of English literacy, and also not be allowed to hide behind the twin excuses of not being able to concentrate and not being an English teacher?
Update: Joanne Jacobs has not one but two postings that are peripherally related to this topic. The first is a link to an article by National Review author Rich Lowry, who wonders why these bilingual teachers can't pass English literacy tests. My guess is that superintendent Laboy considered himself "bilingual" as well, but he flunked an English exam. So did 22 out of 25 "bilingual" teachers in his town.
In the second posting, Joanne relates the story of Kiet Tran, a hapless teen-age Vietnamese immigrant who was enrolled in a Madison, WI high school. He was promptly placed in "bilingual" class taught entirely in Spanish - and his English-speaking father was not able to get Kiet transferred into English-speaking classes. The family finally had to move out of the district in order to get English classes for the boy.
Rich Lowry's comment that "...bilingual education is a misnomer. It is really monolingual education, in any language but English." is beginning not to seem like an exaggeration. When immigrants have to fight to be taught English, and teachers who are incompetent in English sue to keep their "bilingual" teaching positions, something is very, very wrong.
Posted by kswygert at August 5, 2003 11:31 AM