The suggestion that the Pennsylvania Department of Education is "refusing" to release district-by-district data or public information is just not accurate ("Secrecy vs. sunshine"). The controversy began when the School District of Philadelphia asked the Department to produce an interim report. The Philadelphia report was provided with the district's understanding that the data was based on 2002-2003 employment records and would have to be updated/verified at the local level if such a report were to be accurate (updated 2003-2004 employment information is not yet available). In addition, it was understood that pass or fail, teachers with an elementary certification are still considered "qualified" under current law, and have until May 2006 to meet the additional NCLB qualifications.
The Department gave the Philadelphia Inquirer sound reasons why release of the information it sought would be misleading, inaccurate, and grossly unfair to teachers. We regret that they chose not to share those reasons with readers.
Teachers or teacher candidates take the middle-level Praxis examination for different reasons, just as high school students take the SATs for different reasons. Some students take the SAT early to see what to expect when they take the test for real in their last year of high school. For the same reasons a parent would object to the public release of their child's 10th-grade SAT score, many teachers would justifiably be outraged if their scores were prematurely reported in the media.
Current Pennsylvania Department of Education guidelines allow elementary certified teachers to teach up to grade 8 (middle school). By the end of the 2005-06 school year, teachers will have to be certified to teach in their subject areas if they want to remain at the middle level. Teachers may take any one of four content-area tests during the interim (social studies, science, mathematics, or English language arts). This allows teachers the flexibility to sample the test, decide whether or not they want to retake it if they didn't score well, or decide they don't want to teach at the middle level.
Contrary to the Inquirer's assertion, teachers with an elementary certification are still "qualified" under current federal law. Regardless of whether they pass the Praxis examination or not, they have two more years to meet the additional qualifications. To produce the report that the Inquirer originally requested would have painted a premature and incomplete picture of teacher quality.
The No Child Left Behind Act does indeed require that parents have access to information on the percentage of "highly qualified" teachers at their children's schools. The Inquirer failed to state that this information is already public and already available on the Department's Web site. If a parent or citizen has a question about a specific school or teacher, the school district is in fact obligated to provide the specific teacher information.
The Department had sound reasons, both legal and practical, for refusing the Inquirer's request for the test results of every Pennsylvania test-taker by name. It is a shame that the Inquirer shirked its obligation to present not only its own version of the facts but the Department's. Had the Inquirer's coverage of this story been more balanced, readers would have understood why the paper was not entitled to the information it sought and why the release of that information would have confused the debate over teacher quality and needlessly embarrassed many hard-working Pennsylvania teachers. In June 2006 the Department will have a more accurate picture and may have an entirely different story to tell.
Keith Pierce
Press Secretary & Director of Communications
Pennsylvania Department of Education