Unions, school boards score Regents' teacher test plan

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New York' City Schools Chancellor . <""\. 0 Frank l\Iacchiarola has said that he would



By PETER SLOCUM Albany . (News Bureau}-The Board of Regents will deoate today a hotly contested plan to upgrade teacher and student performance in the public schools by recognizing teaching as a profession and requir ing new teachers to pass' special licensing exams and to undergo a one-year internship,

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, d, But don't hold YOUI' breath waiting for the first new teacher to flunk a competen∑ cy ex am , The Regents can set policy, but they al'en't empowered to . impose the examination . . '

recommend, that the city substitute the state exam for the test it now uses in the hiring of teachers_ The IS∑member board overwhelmingly approved a draft of the plan earlier tllis year, and may apply the finishing touches

"That in Itself would signal its de∑ mise," says James Vetro, an official of the New York State School Boards - Association, Almost nobody likes the Regents' com promise teacher competency plan . The school boards group thinks it ∑gives too much power to teacher unions with 15 of 17 seats on the proposed state board set aside for teachers. Tlwt's like "setfing the fox to guard the henhouse," the association charged at a reccnt public hearing. In exchange for professional recogni tion hy the state alongside doctors and psychologists, the school boards want greater power to fire veteran teachers . who go bad. Tenure Isn't weakened The Regents' pl:\I1 doesn't weaken te∑' nure, but still the te[lcilors aren't h:tppy. A state board for teachers wou lei have little real po\\,('l', they complain, becaust' the Hegents would retain authority to S(,t standards for teaching. Propo:,als for teacher evaluations hased on pupil IlI'!'formance-an increasingly popular idea nationwide--are strenuously objt'cted to by the unions. The plan "sets into motion an in service 'witch hunt' which would be based on unfair conclusions about teacher com∑ petence based 011 test scores and [llIaw for tyranny by some administrators," said Thomas Y. Hobart, president of ∑the )';('11' York State United Teachers Union, at the Albany hearing on the plan, Both the unions and the school boards believe that the price of the com p ete n t' V ylat.\_i X.5!.t:tated. .

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The Legislature has that power and .:s;:::,.. lawmakel's aren't about to touch this hot . an issu'c in an election year, particularly one that's opposed by both the teachers unions and the sc hool boarels. "I don ' t think it's very likely that there'll be any action on that this year," said Sen James Donovan <R-Oneida), chairman of the Senate Education Committee, A quick review of campaign financing reports on file here mny help explain Donor[ln's prediction. In Hli8, when the Legislature last faced tht, voters, the Ncw York State United Te achers Union made campaign contributions of more than $500,000. The teachL'rs spl'l'ad their 1l10lWY around liberally, handing it ou t to HeplIblicans :lIld Dl.'llllll'l'ats alike---:ln<! pal'tkulul'ly to

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