The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "teacher certification" ...
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Mall School
A Team 4 hidden camera investigation exposed a system that allows disruptive students to get the same diploma as other children, even though they only have to put in half the number of hours. Many of the schools they attend are run by private non-profits that are not required to have certified teachers. The students only have to spend 15 hours a week in the classroom, which is about half as much as regular students. And when it's time to graduate, they get a diploma from their home high school, just like other students.
Tags: educations; teacher certification; high school education; private nonprofit organizations; disruptive students; contracting
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Diploma Mill
A series of stories from the Virgin Islands Daily News, "Diploma Mill" reveals that the V.I. government was working with and enabling a diploma mill to target V.I. teachers. The author's research indicates that the institution was not a school, but was instead a "diploma-generating business that had ties to a questionable online operation."
Tags: diploma mill; teacher certification; accreditation; Virgin Islands; buying diplomas; teacher's union
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Hidden Violations
Illinois is the second to last state in "the rate at which it suspends or revokes teaching certificates." Often reports of misconduct are not acted upon or investigated. Its screening system is also flawed and "has repeatedly allowed convicted sex offenders and other violent felons to be certified to teach."
Tags: teaching; certified teacher; Illinois Department of Children and Family Services; Illinois State Board of Education; sex offenders; criminals; abuse; felons; certificate
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Left Behind, The Failure of East St. Louis Schools
KMOV-TV looks into the state of the public schools in the East St. Louis area, finding that they are not providing an education that meets state and federal standards. Among the issues are: a shortage of special-education teachers, a lack of at-home teachers, the fact East St. Louis is one of five public school districts (of 900 total in the state) that are on state academic probation, friends and relatives being hired for security, secretarial and custodial jobs and a high number of managers without teacher certifications, administrators taking expensive trips for seminars on taxpayer dollars.
Tags: District 189; East St. Louis; Missouri public schools; state academic probation; nepotism; misuse of taxpayer funds
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Teachers figure into school gap
In order to do this investigation, the reporter developed a "teacher quality index" based on statistically relevant ways to measure teacher qualifications. Using this index, Russell was able to show that well-qualified teachers were much more likely to work in wealthy school districts. By illustrating the unequal distribution of qualified teachers across Texas, the author was able to raise some important questions about the achievement gap between poor and wealthy school districts.
Tags: education; statistics; achievement gap; teachers; teacher certification; schools; standardized tests
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Quality Counts 2003
This story from the Education Week looks at the dearth of qualified teachers in schools that have a high number of minority children and poorer students. As the reporters found out, teachers in these schools have difficult working conditions and that high schools students have teachers who are not certified in the subjects they are teaching.
Tags: US Department of Education; school teachers; high minority schools; teachers license; No child left behind act; teachers certification
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Many teachers aren't certified
Niedowski reports that about two thirds of Baltimore teacher's hires lack credentials
Tags: teachers; credentials; certification; requirements
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License to Teach
Governing looks at the trend of alternative certification for teachers.
Tags: teaching; education; alternative certification; teacher shortage; teaching licensure; alternative licensing
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Undereducated & Uncounted
A San-Antonio Express News four-part investigation questions the accuracy of the high-school dropout rates in Texas. The report finds that the dropout rate at Holmes High-School in San Antonio is "more than 70 percent higher than the most-recent figure reported by the state." One of the stories follows the development of the children who left school and reveals that "they hung out with the "wrong crowd." Another story in the package looks at the rate of the teens who drop out to start a family, and details the difficulties that teenage mothers often face in bringing up their children. The investigation also examines the measures that are being taken to lower the dropout rate, and concludes that "...some students who recover learn to simply "snap out" of their problems and get their diplomas."
Tags: schools; students; teachers; parents; graduation; diplomas; ethnicity; low income; poverty; General Education Development certificate; National Center for Education Statistics; Texas Education Agency; demographics; Hispanic; algebra; maturity factor
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Teachers fall short: Nearly half the new teachers haven't passed all the tests necessary for full credentials
The Virginian-Pilot found that "nearly half the teachers who received new licenses in Virginia last year have yet to pass a national exam or complete course work traditionally required for full teaching credentials." Forty-eight percent of the 9,304 licenses issued from July 1999 to June 2000 received provisional or conditional licenses. In Norfolk and surrounding counties, temporarily licensed teachers make up between 5 and 10 percent of the teaching work force, "and the numbers are expected to rise as school systems scramble to address the lingering teacher shortage...The state estimated it would need 7,600 new teachers last school year, but Virginia colleges graduated only about 4,000."
Tags: teachers; teacher certification; teaching credentials; Praxis; substitute teachers; provisional teaching license; CAR