More than half of Chicago's fourth-graders read below grade level, third-graders are also lagging and less than 10 percent of the district's elementary teachers are specially certified to teach reading or science, a new assessment shows.

"How did we get here?" asked board of education President Rufus Williams, shaking his head after the statistics were outlined at Wednesday's Board of Education meeting.

"How did we get to where so many teachers are not endorsed in specific areas?"

According to the report, compiled by Xavier Botana, the district's chief of instructional design and assessment:

• Sixty percent of the city's fourth-graders are not achieving basic reading levels, according to 2005 figures from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Among the nation's 11 largest urban districts, only Cleveland, Los Angeles and the District of Columbia fared worse.
  
• Third-graders averaged 20 points behind the rest of the state in Illinois Standard Achievement Test scoring in 2006.
• Only 5 percent of the city's teachers in kindergarten through grade 8 have specialized teaching certificates in reading, 9 percent in science. District-wide, 159 elementary schools don't have a single teacher endorsed by the state in reading, math or science. 
  

Botana says the office of instructional design and assessment will have a series of proposals for the board by August to address under-achievement in grades 3 through 8.

The policy proposals will include tougher reading requirements for eighth-grade students, the hiring of teachers trained in specific subjects and an effort to develop collaboration among high school and middle school teachers

CPS chief Arne Duncan says the criteria for hiring teachers has to change.

"No longer is it good enough that you're a K through (grade) 8 teacher. You have to be a reading teacher or a math teacher or a science teacher," Duncan says.

Botana says the district reimburses teachers for going back to school and earning certificates in certain subjects, but some teachers may need to take up to eight classes.

Duncan says the city is also hiring part-time teachers in certain subjects to help close the gap. Previously only full-time teachers were hired.

Among other actions Wednesday, the board approved an amended guidelines for principals and teachers dealing with students affected by domestic and date violence.

The updated policy, which replaces a policy in place since 1999, came at the request of the Mayor's Office of Domestic Violence.

Patrick J. Rocks, CPS general counsel, says his office receives more calls from principals with questions related to protective orders than any other issue.

"Our goal is to have a policy that improves the guidance for principals," Rock says.

The major differences in the policies, according to Adrienne Scherenzel-Curry, CPS senior policy and ethics advisor, are:

• Denying access to student records to any parent identified by the court as a perpetrator.
• Clarifying which incidents should be reported, such as the sighting of a weapon at home, witnessing domestic or date violence, the excessive use of drugs or alcohol at home.
• Identifying when social workers can release information.
• Informing students of available support services like the domestic abuse helpline.