Submitted by Marion TD Lewis, Esq., Sep 29, 2008 22:59

I am a former NYC teaching fellow who obtained full and permanent certification in New York State thanks to the fellows program. I must say I have to agree with Randi Weingarten that the new statistics are troubling. It would be interesting to know what the root cause of this problem is. I do not believe that there is anything inherently unfair about the certification process. But maybe I am wrong. I know that there have been teachers who have said that there are cultural biases in the test. I do not buy into that though. I was reading an article in, I think, Scientific Mind, the other day. And they did a study using race and "expectations" and other variables to see how people performed when expectations change. It was fascinating. While this comment is not the place to really delve deeply into this issue, I would say that I think there are a few issues at play here. One is definitely in the head of the test takers. They can't get certified because they truly believe they can't pass the tests. They believe that the test is so biased they can't pass. And it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But there are many certified teachers who are Black and who can't find teaching jobs. So some of the problem has to do with hiring practices/criterion. But I suspect it is even more complicated than that. I would suggest an indepth study to get to the real root of the problem. By Marion TD Lewis, Esq. A New York Divorce Attorney

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