What
NCLB says:
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Applies only to teachers providing direct instruction in
core academic subjects. |
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Special education teachers who do not provide direct instruction,
but provide supports such as counseling or interventions, are
not included in this definition. |
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Must hold
at least a bachelor’s degree. |
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Have full state certification or licensure. |
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Have demonstrated competence in their subject areas. |
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All teachers of core subjects must be highly qualified by
the end of the 2005-2006 school year, although there is little
in the law to enforce this requirement for districts and states
who do not meet this requirement. |
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All newly hired teachers in Title I schools or programs for
economically disadvantaged students be highly qualified by
the 2003 school year. |
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States must measure the extent to which all students have
highly qualified teachers, particularly minority and disadvantaged
students |
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Special education teachers |
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The
Changes:
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| Rural Teachers |
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This change focuses on small schools in rural school districts
meting the following requirements: 1) the total number of students
in average daily attendance at all schools served by the district
is fewer than 600, OR allow schools in the district are located
in counties with a population density of fewer than 10 persons
per square mile, AND 2) all schools served by the district
have school locale code of 7 or 8, as determined by the Secretary,
OR the district is located in an area of the State defined
as rural by the state. |
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As long
as teachers in rural school districts-which comprise approximately
one-third of the nation’s school districts--.are
highly qualified in at least one subject, they will have three
more years to become highly qualified in the additional subjects
that they teach, or until the 2006-2007 school year. |
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Newly hired teachers in rural school districts would
have until their third year of teaching after their hiring
date to meet the highly qualified expectations. Veteran teachers
in rural districts granted the extension must become highly
qualified by the spring of 2007. |
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Note:
Because of a very narrow definition used by the US Department
of Education to define rural, many school districts “rural” districts
may not quality under this provision. The definition that the
US Department of Education uses to identify eligible rural
districts is taken from the Rural Education Achievement Program’s
(REAP) small schools funding category. This category narrowly
defines eligible school districts as those that have fewer
than 600 students or located in a county with less than 20
people per square mile. All schools in the districts must be
in communities with fewer than 2,500 residents. As a result,
many school districts, many of them located in the South and
Midwest, are countywide school districts with larger enrollments,
or they are based in larger towns rather than less populous
areas. As a result, all of Nebraska’s roughly 440 rural
districts will receive extra time to meet the teacher quality
requirements under NCLB, yet Alabama and South Carolina have
no rural districts that qualify, and seven other southeastern
states have only a handful that qualify. |
Current
Multi-subject Teachers |
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States
may streamline their teacher evaluation process by developing
a method for current, multi-subject teachers to
demonstrate through one process that they are highly qualified
in each of their subjects and maintain the same high standards
in subject matter mastery. This process could be through a
subject matter competency test called HOUSSE (high objective
uniform state standard of evaluation which could include a
teacher’s years of experience, high quality professional
development as measured by a student’s test scores, continuing
education or other objective evaluations. |
| Science
Teachers Who Teach More Than One Science Subject |
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States
may determine—based on their current certification
requirements-to allow science teachers to demonstrate that
they are highly qualified in a “broad field” of
science, or individual fields of science such as biology, physics
or chemistry. |
How
It Was Before the Rules Change:
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| Rural
Teachers |
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NCLB would
have required that teachers in rural school districts who
teach more than one subject would have to demonstrate competency
in subject matter by the 2005-2006 school year, not nearly
enough time to meet the law’s requirements. The rules
change allows rural teachers additional time to meet the requirements
in all of the fields they teach. |
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For
newly hired teachers in rural schools, they would have until
their third year of teaching to become highly qualified. |
| Current
Multi-subject Teachers |
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Multiple-subject
teachers, not new to the field, would have been required
to be highly qualified in each of the core subjects
they taught by either taking a test in each of the subjects
or going back to school. NCLB also allowed states to use an
alternative process called HOUSSE. process creates an alternate
method, as determined by each state to certify that teachers
know what they teach, but in each subject. The rules change
would allow states to develop a single process to prove teachers
are highly qualified in each of the subjects. |
| Science
Teachers Who Teach More Than One Science Subject |
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Before
the change, science teachers who taught more than one science
subject would have been required to prove competency
in each subject they taught. Under the rules change, multi-subject
science teacher can prove competency through a “broad
field” test or major. But this decision is left up to
each of the states to exercise and implement. |
