State and Local Teacher Quality Plans

Each state receiving Title I money (which is currently all of them) to develop a plan with action steps to ensure that all public elementary school and secondary school teachers in core academic subjects with in the state are "highly-qualified" not later than the end of teh 2005-2006 school year. These requirements do not apply to private school teachers. Code academic subjects are defined as: English, reading or language arts, history, mathematics, science, foreign language, civics, government, economics, arts, history and geography.

The state NCLB teacher quality plan must describe how:
 

•	It will meet the "highly qualified" teacher requirement,
•	It will define "highly qualified" teacher, and,
•	It will develop and implement strategies for preparing, training, and recruiting teachers to meet the quality definition.
The state must also establish annual measurable goals for each school district and school to include:
1)	Definition of a qualified teacher;
2)	Annual increase in the percentage of highly qualified teachers in each school district and schools to meet the goal of highly qualifiedby the year 2005-2006;
3)	Annual increase in the percentage of teachers receiving high quality professional development aumed at making them highly qualified and successful teachers;
4)	Develop any other measures required by the state to meet the teacher quality goal.
5)	Develop strategies the state will use to monitor the progress of school districts and schools in meeting the goals;
6)	Steps the SEA will take to ensure that Title I minority children and children from low income families are not taught at higher rates than otehr children by inexperienced, unqualified or out-of-field teachers;
7)	Other measures the state determines to be appropriate to increase teacher qualifications.
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 implementing the law and making a good faith effort to reach the highly qualified teacher goal in NCLB as soon as possible. The US Department of Education will determine, on a state-by-state basis, whether or not a State is implementing the law and making a good-faith effort to reach the HQT goal by examining the following 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 made a good-faith effort to comply, the Department reserves the right to take appropriate action such as withholding federal funds.

Each school district must follow up with an implementation plan tailored to its local school community. The act requires SEAs and LEAs to seek parent and community input when developing teacher quality action plans and requires schools to notify parents, upon parental request, of the qualifications of their children’s teachers. School districts that participate in Title I must also develop plan for meeting the federal teacher criteria by 2005–2006 which must include:

Beginning in school year 2002-2003, both the states and school districts must annually report their progress in meeting their measurable goals publicly. School districts must also require their principals of Title I school to annually attest that their schools are in compliance with the teacher qualification requirements.