I continue to be more and more happy about homeschooling&hellip
School superintendent fails must-pass English test
LAWRENCE, Massachusetts (AP) — This city’s superintendent of schools, 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.
I really wish I could get a copy of that test—I’m curious.
Wilfredo T. Laboy called his failing scores “frustrating” and “emotional.” He blamed his performance on a lack of preparation and concentration, as well as the fact that Spanish is his first language.
And there are no other teachers in that group of those who were put on unpaid leave whose first language isn’t English? Even if English isn’t his first language, it is the de facto language used in the U.S.
“It bothers me because I’m trying to understand the congruence of what I do here every day and this stupid test,” Laboy told The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence in a story published Sunday.
What, communication isn’t part of your job? If you can’t even figure out that part, you have some serious comprehension issues.
“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.”
Hell, I’ve never been an English teacher and don’t look at any such “rules” ever, but I can bet that I would pass that test easily. In fact, most reasonably literate people I know have an instinctive grasp of the basic rules of grammar and punctuation of whatever language they use most often.
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.
Why isn’t this guy on unpaid leave already? How is he more important than the teachers?
He said Laboy was doing an excellent job leading the district, and is getting more time to prepare for the test. But he added, “He’s going to have to pass. …The situation will only get serious if he goes much longer without passing.”
And how many chances were the teachers given? The district in question has abysmal student test scores and is doing poorly in just about every way one can measure quality in schools.
Since 1998, all Massachusetts 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, who receives a 3 percent pay hike this month that will raise his salary to $156,560, recently put 24 teachers on unpaid administrative leave because they failed a basic English test.
Right—he gets more money, despite the fact that he’s not functionally literate. That makes sense how?
