Illinois teachers failed competency tests

CHICAGO -- More than 5,200 Illinois public school teachers have failed at least one teacher competency test since the state began giving its own certification exams in 1988, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday in a copyright story.

One Chicago teacher flunked 24 of 25 such tests, the newspaper reported.

The paper's analysis of thousands of test scores also found that teachers with the worst exam records were five times more likely to teach in low-performing, low-income, high-minority schools than in schools with high income and achievement levels and fewer minority students.

Linda Darling-Hammond, executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, said the concentration of low-performing teachers in high-need communities is "immoral, it's illegal, and it's a national disgrace."

"It's certainly a disgrace to Illinois," Darling-Hammond said.