Print Page

ED Allows States and Local School Districts to Extend the “Qualified Teacher” Deadline to the End of the 2006-2007 School Year

Change officially announced on October 21, 2005
Key Letter Announcing the Change Can Be Found in the Following Policy Letter Sent to the Chief State School Officers:
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/secletter/051021.html

Interprets NCLB TitleI, Part A, subpart 1, Section 1119
Regulations: Starting Section 200.55 through 200.57
 

What NCLB says:

School districts that participate in Title I must develop plans for meeting the federal teacher criteria by the end of the 2005–2006 which must include:
 

•

Strategies the school district will use to implement the state plan;

•

Include incentives for voluntary transfers, professional development, recruitment programs, or other effective means that minority students and students from low-income families are not taught at higher rates than other students by unqualified, out-of-field, or inexperienced teachers.

•

Requires that all teachers of core academic subjects must be highly qualified by the end of the 2005–2006 school year.

 

The Changes:

If states do not meet the 100 percent qualified teacher goal by the end of the 2005-2006 school year, the will not lose their federal funds if they are implmene4ting the law and making a goodf faith effort to reach the highly qualified teacher goal in NCLBV as soon as possible.

The US Department of Education will determine, on a state bvy state basis, whether or not a State is implementing the law and making a good-faith effort to reach the HQT goal by examining elements:
 

•

The State’s definition of a “high qualified teacher,”

•

How the State reports to parents and the public classes taught by highly qualified teachers;

•

The completeness and accuracy of HQT data reported to the Department,

•

The steps the State has taken to ensure that experienced and qualified teachers are equitably distributed among classrooms with poor and minority children and those with their peers; and

•

How successful the State’s efforts are to recruit, retain, and improve the quality of teaching force.


If in the judgment of ED, a state has made good faith effort to comply with the law based on the above criteria, it will have until the end of the 2006-20067 to comply with the NCLB deadlines.

If ED decides that a State has NOT mad a good-faith effort to comply, the Department rese3rves the right to take appropriate action such as withholding federal funds.