ABCTE Written into NCLB Legislation?

In poking around in the California's State website hoping to find out more on the fake credential story in the LA Times yesterday, I came across more interesting history on ABCTE, the sham operation designed to introduce "market forces" to teacher preparation. It seems the Dr. Kathleen Madigan, President of ABCTE has been pitching her goods in California as well. This report on Madigan's latest visit is from the State's website. It is interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the self-reported claim that ABCTE was approved in NCLB before they ever offered their first Internet test to certify a teacher. From the California Commission for Teacher Certification (CCTC), August 2004:

PSC 4A-1
Update on the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) Passport to TeachingSM Certification Program

Introduction

In 2003, the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (American Board or ABCTE) began offering a standards based approach using individualized learning programs and set of rigorous examinations for potential teachers seeking a national level license. The Professional Teaching Knowledge exam and the Elementary Education exam were first administered in September 2003. The English Language Arts and Math content exams were administered in February 2004. ABCTE is recognized in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as an approved provider (Title II, Part A, National Activities Section). Teacher candidates who meet ABCTE standards are considered "Highly Qualified" by the federal government. The information provided in this item briefly describes the four exams that the American Board developed and currently administers.

The next section is key, too. Here, Madigan provides more on the timeline as to when ABCTE (or what was planned to be ABCTE) landed its first $5 million from the Federal treasury. This is consistent with her claim that ABCTE was written into NCLB, because the date of the initial Dept. of Ed. grant was Sept. 2001, before final passage of the Act. Also pointed out here in the State's summary of Madigan's informative presentation is the fact that ABCTE sucked another $35 million dollars($35,000,000) in 2003 from the US Dept. of Education to continue its fake preparation of teacher candidates for another 5 years. Where could all this money be going? To improve teacher quality? Or to maintain a website and line the pockets of the education reform profiteers in Washington? More from Madigan's to the CCTC, August 2004:

History of the American Board

Created in 2001 through a partnership between the Education Leaders Council (ELC) and the National Council on Teacher Quality, the American Board was developed to create options in teacher certification.

The National Council on Teacher Quality received a $5 million dollar, two-year grant from the United States Department of Education's (USDOE) Fund for the Improvement of Education (September, 2001) for the purpose of creating the American Board. The American Board used a standards based approach to teacher certification including preparation resources, online advisors, and computer based teacher exams.

Passing scores were adopted for the Elementary Education (K-6), English (6-12), Mathematics (6-12) and the PTK exams in 2003. In 2003-04, the USDOE awarded the American Board an additional five-year, $35 million dollar grant. This grant is intended to "implement innovative teacher recruitment strategies, expand subject area certifications, develop preparation resources, create mentoring programs using technology and fully evaluate the effectiveness of this approach" (Test Development Process: Executive Summary, June 2004). At this time, federal funding is ABCTE's primary source of revenue.

Currently four states, Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania have considered and adopted the ABCTE Passport to TeachingSM as an alternative route to certification. The Florida State Board of Education and the New Hampshire State Board of Education voted in June 2004 to accept the American Board, Passport to TeachingSM as a new route to full certification for the state's public school teachers.

Florida, imagine that!

This part of the NCLB story is consistent with the other elements of the emerging travesty and tragedy that clearly show NCLB as the manufactured problem that would be solved by the testing/textbook industry and the corporate welfare artists on the MacSchool Boards of Directors and conservative think tanks with their self-published fake research. Their advisors, too, sit on "non-partisan" and "non-profit" Boards of the Education Leaders Council (is that Gene Hickok's name I see there!), the National Council on Teacher Quality (chaired by Andy Rotherham, is it?), and other professional-sounding hack outfits who sell their services to the testing-technological complex.

Is there a real education reporter out there interested in this story? Just one?