Oct 18, 2007 - ‘‘Hidden Violations" is a new series by Scott Reeder, that documents how Illinois doesn't deal with teacher misconduct.
His award-winning 2005 series, "The Hidden Cost of Tenure", is a must read for parents and taxpayers because it confirms what most of us feared about the effects of tenure. "Hidden Violations" reveals the casualness that Illinois education authorities take toward teachers who misbehave. They don't even have investigators that followup on complaints. Of the 50 states, only Virginia revokes or suspends fewer teaching certificates than Illinois.
Amazingly, Reeder found, "None of the tenured teachers fired in the last decade have also lost their teaching certificate and certification officials are not notified when a school district disciplines an educator."
FINDING: Eighty-four percent of Illinois' school districts have never given any tenured teacher a bad job evaluation during an 11-year period.
Small Newspaper Group filed open records requests with 50 state education departments and built a national database of revocations and suspensions of teacher licenses during its "Hidden Violations" investigation.
What they found isn't unique to Illinois. What's unique is that they chose to investigate it and report on what they found.
