Tests for New Teachers Get Endorsement of AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO delegates ended their national convention in Anaheim on Thursday after endorsing competency testing of public school teachers for the first time.

The American Federation of Teachers, an AFL-CIO affiliate, had previously supported the tests, but this is the first time that the 13.2-million-member labor federation has formally backed the idea that “all beginning teachers should be tested and required to meet a standard which represents at least the average of all college graduates.”

The National Education Assn., the nation’s largest teachers union, is not an AFL-CIO member and recently endorsed competency testing for new teachers under most circumstances.

“It is a very significant position we’ve taken here today,” AFT President Albert Shanker, a principal force behind the resolution, said in an interview.

The resolution means that the 96 national and international unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO and all state and local labor federations are expected to join the teachers union to win legislation needed to implement teacher testing programs, Shanker said.

The resolution also calls for “higher teacher certification requirements that specifically include greater emphasis on subject matter competence and less emphasis on method courses.”

The AFL-CIO resolution also calls for “radical increases” in beginning teachers’ pay, calling for entry-level salaries as high as $22,000 per year. “Until teachers can start teaching with salaries equivalent to those of other college graduates, we will stand no chance of attracting good candidates,” the AFL-CIO said.

The teachers union is also taking the lead in implementing another new concept for organized labor: associate membership in the unions.

The estimated 1,000 delegates at the convention adopted a resolution approving the idea of allowing workers to become associate union members even if they are not covered by a collective bargaining contract, the traditional method of membership.

While several unions have started such programs that, for minimal fees, offer a variety of services to non-union workers, the American Federation of Teachers in Texas claims some initial successes in an associate membership drive there. Associate members receive insurance, legal services and other discounts.

The Texas program is typical of the associate membership concept that the AFL-CIO is encouraging affiliates to adopt as a means of increasing the strength of organized labor.

The AFL-CIO delegates also adopted a resolution opposing mass testing of workers for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a proposal raised for hotel and restaurant workers in some sections of the nation.

The convention said it strongly opposes “screening workers for AIDS unless and until the Centers for Disease Control recommend such action either for all employees or specific job classifications.”

Despite the polite reception the convention gave Secretary of Labor William E. Brock III Wednesday, the delegates unanimously adopted a long series of resolutions Thursday condemning almost every action and policy taken by President Reagan since he took office.