1,500 FOIA Requests Produce Stunning Report Card on Schools

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It took 1,500 Freedom of Information Act requests to 876 school systems but the records reporter Scott Reeder obtained revealed how tenure in the Illinois school systems works against teacher accountability. Disciplinary records showed that on average only two of the state’s 95,000 teachers are dismissed each year for poor job performance. Only one in 930 performance evaluations results in an “unsatisfactory” rating. Reeder has been honored with the 2006 Clark Mollenhoff Award for Excellence in Investigative Reporting. (6/22/06)