Even before the April results were fullyreleased, Massachusetts Speaker of the HouseThomas M. Finneran (D-Mattapan) bashed teacherswho failed as "idiots."

Cellucci latched on to teacher testing as arallying point in his raucous gubernatorial raceagainst Attorney General L. Scott Harshbarger '64.

After finalizing the contract with NES todevelop the exam one year ago, Commissioner ofEducation Robert Antonucci resigned his post twomonths before the initial April 4 tests.

Next, the Department of Education withdrew astudy guide early in the month because testcontent had been altered.

They dropped a bombshell 10 days before thefirst April testing: they required prospectiveteachers to take--and pass--the exam to achievecertification.

The Board of Education voted on June 22 tolower the minimum passing score because the testwas untried. But ten days later, at the behest ofthen-acting Governor Cellucci, the Boardreconvened and voted to raise the cut-off point,prompting the resignation of Interim CommissionerFrank Haydu.

""I think it was highly political. The debatewas filled with finger-pointing," Murphy says."Candidates were trying to outdo themselves withteacher-bashing."

Acting Commissioner David Driscoll hasattempted to guide the department through the lastturbulent few months, vigorously defending theteacher tests.

"The focus of the criticism of the tests ismisguided. The issue is about the answers to tests[which] clearly indicate poor basic literaryskills," he said in a press release.

Teachers' Tribulations

But the intertwining of education and politicshas resulted in a paradox.

As Massachusetts weeds out supposedlyunqualified candidates, it faces a dire teachershortage, as a majority of the teacher populationis reaching retirement age.

"How in the hell do we attract more people intothe profession?...I don't think anybody has ananswer," says Mark Roosevelt '78, a co-author ofthe 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act.

Haney agrees. "If you don't have an oversupplyof teachers, it doesn't matter even if you have avalid test," he says.

Meanwhile, teachers question whether the testadequately assesses their knowledge, and whetherNES is a qualified administrator.