Teacher Tests

By KRWG News

Texas – Several thousand first-year elementary school teachers in Texas will have to take exams as early as this spring.

That's after the U.S. Department of Education rejected the state's appeal that it waive the requirement.

In a letter to state Education Commissioner Robert Scott this week, the federal agency said first-year teachers in elementary and some middle schools who didn't pass a "generalist" exam. According to The Dallas Morning News, the federal agency determined that failure to past the test of knowledge in core subjects didn't comply with federal standards. Texas has a week to come up with a testing plan.

However, federal officials did exempt teachers who specialize in music, art and similar courses from the generalist exam. That waiver may cover thousands of first-year fine-arts teachers.

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Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.