The College went public to convince the government not to count this year’s Qualifying Test, and to ensure that current members were not required to write the test with no notice or opportunity to register.

Public pressure by the College has averted a "grave injustice" for teachers who are temporary certificate holders and reversed a government decision that created inequities for teacher candidates at Ontario’s faculties of education.

New Education Minister Elizabeth Witmer said she was following the advice of the College of Teachers when she announced on April 23rd that faculty of education graduates would have to write the Ontario Teacher Qualifying Test this year, but that the results would not count for certification.

The College – along with many other education stakeholders – had been urging the government for months not to count the test until it had been properly validated by a full year’s operation. But the College went public with its objections on March 19th when it became clear the government was committed to counting the test.

The College also felt that public pressure was required to avert a situation in which more than 500 College members would have been required to write the Ontario Teacher Qualifying Test with no time and no access to register for it.

The Ontario government proclaimed sections of the Quality in the Classroom Act dealing with the qualifying test on March 15. In a complete surprise to the College and other stakeholders, the more than 8,000 College members who hold Interim Certificates of Qualification were required to pass the test before they could convert to a permanent teaching licence.

However, the urgent problem was that if College members who hold interim teaching licences that expire this year failed to write the test, the College would have been forced to cancel their certification.

The College realized that 522 members were in immediate jeopardy. A March 22 deadline loomed to submit their application to New Jersey to take part in the test on April 27.

The College also had a number of other concerns, which were shared by the Ontario Association of Deans of Education and student teachers. The College held a joint news conference with the deans and student teachers to highlight the inequities caused by counting the results of the test this year and by problems with the administration of the test.

Within days of the news conference – in a significant breakthrough – the Ministry of Education reconsidered and decided that College members who were granted interim teaching certificates on or before March 15 didn’t have to write the qualifying test.

And one month later, the new Minister of Education announced it wouldn’t count this year. In response to implementation problems highlighted by the deans and students, the ministry also extended the deadline for test registration from March 22 to March 27.

After the news conference, the College continued to press the government to use this year to validate the test. Chair Larry Capstick wrote to Premier-designate Ernie Eves to explain the College’s concern that the government’s rush to count the test this year created uncertainty and inequity for students at faculties of education and could

create problems for school boards looking to hire qualified teachers for September.

"There is a real lack of equity in the way this requirement is being applied," Larry Capstick told the media at the joint news conference March 19th. "Students at Ontario faculties of education must take the test this April to be licensed to teach in Ontario this September.

"But hundreds of Ontario residents who have crossed the border to take education degrees at U.S. border colleges and who are doing their practice teaching in Ontario classrooms will be able to get interim licences to teach in this province and take the test any time in the next year. They can start teaching in September without any problem. This is clearly unfair."

College Registrar Joe Atkinson said that the College and other education partners have supported the initiative for a qualifying test for new teachers in Ontario but the test has to be fair and relevant.

"The new minister has agreed and I thank her for accepting our advice that we should take this year to validate the test properly and count it next year," he said. "The test is not ready to be used as a basis for withholding certification."