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May 16, 2006
No states meet NCLB teacher deadlineNo state will have 100 percent of their teachers "highly qualified" under NCLB by July, the U.S. Department of Education recently announced. This Associated Press article said 11 states face sanctions--including a loss of federal funds--because they did not make sufficient efforts to meet the law's teacher requirements.
NCLB requires all teachers to have a bachelor's degree, be certified, and demonstrate competency in the core subjects they teach. ED granted states another year to meet the requirement.
While having highly qualified teachers is key to meeting NCLB's goal of closing the achievement gap, it's worth noting that states and school districts have faced many challenges in finding qualified teachers for rural schools and in meeting the technical definition of a highly qualified teacher. Recently, Pennsylvania and Connecticut were told by ED that their definitions did not comply with the law. In addition, the process of federal monitoring has been slow, with ED still reviewing 12 states and therefore did not rate their progress.
While federal officials make sure there are highly qualified teachers in every classroom, they need to provide timely assistance to states and districts instead of withholding any funding that might deter their efforts to find qualified teachers.
Posted May 16, 2006 1:42 PM | No Child Left Behind
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Posted by: Tim Lamb on July 28, 2006 3:30 PM
Reference is made to the recent US Dept. of Ed's ruling on states with respect to testing and teacher qualification in the NSBA's legal clips, boardbuzz, and a NY Times article. However, none of these references have a listing of the states and whether they are in compliance with the law. Do you have a state-by-state listing with regard to ED's recent ruling? Thanks.
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