News in Brief: A National Roundup

Aspiring New York City teachers in a special program passed a licensure exam at much higher than the usual rate for both the state and the city's major producer of teachers.

Of the 332 candidates in New York state's first program to provide an alternative route to teacher licensure, 96 percent passed the liberal arts and sciences exam they took last month, according to district officials.

The statewide passing rate on the other administrations of the test during the past school year was 76 percent, and 57 percent among those who had received their teaching preparation at the City University of New York, a...