Richmond, Virginia -- Del. Jeff Frederick (R- Prince William) today announced a powerful endorsement of his bill, HB 1161, requiring teachers in Virginia to pass a test in order to remain in the classroom. The endorsement comes from the Virginia Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Executive Board, the leading group representing parents and children in Virginia’s public schools. The bill will specifically require teachers to take and pass the PRAXIS II test in their area of instruction as a condition of recertification (license renewal) every 5 years.

Kathryn Brunick, Legislation Chairman for the Virginia PTA stated that “students are being held to higher accountability standards as a result of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOLs) and ‘highly qualified’ teachers are a requirement of the new federal accountability measures. Requiring teachers to pass a test, such as PRAXIS II, as part of their 5 year recertification process, would help ensure that teachers are proficient and accountable.”

“I certainly want to thank the Virginia PTA for getting involved proactively on this measure. Increased accountability benefits all who are involved in public education; from students to principals, teachers to parents. Just as we hold our children to higher accountability standards under the SOL’s in Virginia, so too should the teachers helping to prepare those students to meet their new standards be held to higher standards as well,” Del. Frederick remarked following news of the endorsement. “This test provides one solid way to get closer to guaranteeing our children are getting the best education available, and that our taxpayers are getting the best teachers for their education dollar.”

PRAXIS, a test developed by the Educational Testing Service, is a set of rigorous and carefully validated assessments that provide accurate and reliable information for use by state education agencies in making licensing decisions. PRAXIS II is the version offered in all the content fields (such as elementary ed; biology; economics; math; etc.) covered by state teacher licenses. This test is designed to evaluate each teacher's basic academic skills, subject knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and classroom performance. The PRAXIS series assessments are nationally administered and continually updated to reflect what qualified teachers should know and be able to do.

The Virginia PTA consists of 1200 individual units across the Commonwealth, representing a membership of over 388,000. It is the third largest Congress of the 54 PTA Congresses represented in the national PTA.

Del. Frederick represents the 52nd House District in the House of Delegates. The district consists of the eastern sections of Prince William County.