The superintendent of a Massachusetts school district who failed a required English literacy test three times and put two dozen teachers on unpaid leave for failing a similar exam has passed on his fourth try.
Wilfredo Laboy, a native of Puerto Rico who moved to the United States when he was a child, faced the threat of losing his $156,560-a-year job if he didn’t pass the Communication and Literacy Skills Test by December.
The Lawrence Eagle Tribune reports Laboy got his latest test results last night but would not discuss them publicly.
Lawrence, Mass., Mayor Michael Sullivan told the paper Laboy called him with the good news.
“He said ‘I want you to know right now I passed the test,'” Sullivan said. “I said, ‘Superintendent, tell me that again. I want to make sure I don’t have a bad connection.'”
Laboy told Sullivan he scored a “100 percent perfect” on the portion of the test he had the most trouble with on three prior occasions – the writing mechanics section. Here, test-takers are required to transcribe an audio passage using proper punctuation, spelling and capitalization.
The schools chief, whose first language is Spanish, blamed his earlier failures on a deficiency in grammar and punctuation.
“If you’re not an English teacher, you don’t look at the rules on a regular basis,” Laboy told the Lawrence paper in August. ”It bothers me because I’m trying to understand the congruence of what I do here every day and this stupid test. That’s what, emotionally, I’m so upset about.”
Laboy also attributed his flunking to lack of preparation and concentration. This time around, Laboy pulled out all the stops and took three weeks of vacation at the start of the school year to prepare for the Sept. 13 exam.
School committee member Amy McGovern, one of Laboy’s most outspoken critics, told the paper she was “glad he passed” but added, “It’s something that should have been done three years ago.”
The test Laboy failed assesses fundamental reading and writing skills expected of all entry-level teachers, including vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, spelling and capitalization.
In June, Laboy suspended 17 bilingual teachers who failed a similar state-required oral English fluency test. The educators are not allowed back in the classroom until they pass.
What was widely perceived as a face-saving proposal by Laboy to rehire some of those suspended was rejected by district officials in August.
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