Language Police flunk teachers from Estonia to Arizona

[victor steinbok]

If it was Massachusetts, the circumstances indeed would be quite
different. There is a test that Massachusetts euphemistically calls
"basic literacy"--or, at least, they called it once upon a time. The
test was a brain-child of John Silber long before the national
campaign to test the life out of teachers and students alike. There
was a period when teachers could gain a provisional license to teach
even though they failed the "basic literacy" test, but, at this point,
state has been disapproving of these for some time and not renewing
them. Teachers who used to have provisional licenses but could not get
them renewed and could not pass the test would be out of a job. It is
not limited to single teacher, although there is no way to find a
precise number of casualties.

VS-)

On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 8:01 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> I believe there was an incident, and case, in
> Massachusetts recently where a teacher in some
> town's public school system did not speak English
> well enough, according to some test, was
> eventually discharged, appealed to the courts,
> and won her case.  Specifics of place, date, etc.
> escape me at the moment.  So it's not only Arizona.
>
> Joel

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