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AG: Praxiz requirement raises due process issue
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Posted on Sep 09 2004
The Attorney General Office has warned that the Board of Education’s requirement for Praxiz testing as prerequisite for contract renewal and eligibility for employment “raises issues of due process.”
“Passing Praxiz as a requirement for contract renewal and eligibility for employment when a teacher has a certificate that is valid for a period of time beyond Aug. 31, 2005, raises issues of due process and whether the regulation deprives those teachers of property without due process of law,” said attorney general Pamela Brown in an Aug. 19, 2004 memorandum to BOE chair Roman Benavente.
The board earlier decided to start requiring the Praxiz test for teachers on or before Aug. 31, 2005.
Education commissioner Rita H. Inos said that the adoption of the Praxiz test, a national standardized test of teacher subject knowledge, should be viewed as a benefit to teachers, as it provides direct evidence of their competency.
The commissioner said that proof of teacher core knowledge is one of the three key requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act. The other two are that all elementary and secondary teachers must have at least a bachelor’s degree and have attained full state teacher certification.
Part of the regulation is to require all new teachers at the Public School System to take an entrance exam and this test would be a condition of renewal for all teachers currently teaching in the PSS.
