The Nation - News from June 24, 1985

The president of the National Education Assn. will press the 7,000 delegates at her union’s annual convention that opens in Washington on Friday for a clear endorsement of requiring all new teachers to pass a certification test. “We have to face reality. You can’t run away from or ignore the fact that the tests are being used and will continue to be used as part of the pre-certification requirement,” Mary Hatwood Futrell said. For several years, the 1.7-million-member union has maintained that it supported testing new teachers but opposed barring anyone from the profession solely because he or she failed such a test.