NEW YORK – The first year of mandatory tests for New York’s would-be teachers shows a majority in New York City don’t have the requisite Academic Literacy Skills to teach youngsters, and the statewide average pass rate isn’t much better.

Of the 11,371 potential New York teachers who took the Academic Literacy Skills test this year, only a paltry 68 percent passed with the minimum of at least 520 points out of 600, or an 80 percent, the Huffington Post reports.

The results were especially bad in New York City.

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According to the New York Post, not a single one of the 13 students who took the test, which analyzes potential teachers’ ability to read and write competently, made the grade. Less than half of the students from York College of Queens, Concordia College, Medgar Evers College, Mercy College’s Bronx campus, and CUNY’s College of Technology managed to pass, the paper reports.

State Education Commissioner John King said the results show the state’s teacher training programs need to get their acts together or turn off the lights.

“It’s better to have fewer programs that better prepare teachers than having many schools that have teachers who are unprepared for the classroom,” he said, according to the Post.

The Huffington Post contends the data raises some other issues, as well.

“Since this is only the first year the test was required, we can only wonder how many hundreds of previous teachers graduated without the basic literacy skills necessary to effectively teach students. And of those who might have passed if the test had been administered in previous years, how many of those teachers truly mastered the necessary material?” according to the site.

“ … (W)e might have a choice in the neighborhoods we live in and therefore, the overall quality of the school our children attend, but we have absolutely no say in, and certainly no knowledge of, the qualifications of the individual teachers.”

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That’s an important point because leading education research shows teachers and school principals have the biggest impact on students’ ability to learn, and a bad or mediocre teacher can do more damage than good.

As the Huffington Post notes, “with a New York high school graduation rate of 75 percent and a national remediation rate ranging anywhere from 20 to 40 percent, our students need all the help they can get.

“And that help – both the expectation and the delivery of higher standards – must begin before teachers enter the classroom, while they are still students themselves.”

CUNY Chancellor James Milliken told the New York Post “we are not satisfied with these results, and we are working closely with our college presidents, education deans and others to ensure we do all we can to produce the quality teachers the city requires and deserves.”

That will likely entail creating corrective-action plans, tightened admissions policies, or more academic support. New York sent it’s teacher training colleges $11.5 million to prepare for the new teaching standards. Potential educators must also pass teaching skills and content knowledge tests, according to the New York Post.

Students who failed the Academic Literacy Skills test this year can retake the exam for $131, the Albany Times Union reports.