Highly Qualified Teachers: Three Big Questions Every Reporter Should Ask
Tuesday, October 21, 2003

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 acknowledges the important role that teacher quality plays in promoting student achievement. After the first day of the 2002-2003 school year, all newly hired teachers in programs supported with Title I funds were required to be "highly qualified" according to the definition set forth in NCLB. By the end of the 2005-2006 school year, all teachers in core academic subjects must be "highly qualified" in areas of teaching assignment. by Education Commission of the States, 10/21/2003

Highly Qualified Teachers: Three Big Questions Every Reporter Should Ask

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 acknowledges the important role that teacher quality plays in promoting student achievement. After the first day of the 2002-2003 school year, all newly hired teachers in programs supported with Title I funds were required to be "highly qualified" according to the definition set forth in NCLB. By the end of the 2005-2006 school year, all teachers in core academic subjects must be "highly qualified" in areas of teaching assignment. Core academic subjects are defined by NCLB to be: English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history and geography. The federal definition currently omits vocational education teachers from these provisions, but does not prohibit states from setting higher standards that would include teachers of vocational courses.

Under NCLB, teachers are considered "highly qualified" if they have a bachelorâ??s degree, have full/continuing state certification and have demonstrated subject matter competence in the areas taught. [Note: many states use the term licensure to mean the same thing as certification, thus, the terms are used interchangeably.] In providing a definition of "highly qualified" for teachers who already hold current certificates/licenses to teach, states must offer guidance on what is considered fully licensed or certificated for elementary, middle grades and secondary school teachers. NCLB also requires states to engage in setting a "high objective uniform state standard of evaluation" (HOUSSE) necessary to determine competency in the subject matter taught, but may not use time spent in teaching subjects taught as a primary criteria.

Importantly, a teacher does not have to reach the highest level of certification in a state (most often referred to as full licensure or continuing license) to be considered "highly qualified". Initially licensed beginning teachers may meet the requirements necessary to be "highly qualified". Conversely, an experienced teacher, fully licensed by the state, but who does not demonstrate subject-matter competency, would not be considered "highly qualified". While the Federal definition of "highly qualified" lays the baseline below which states may not go, states do have the option â?? and requirement â?? to develop their own definition.

So, the first big question that reporters and the public should ask is how their state has defined a "highly qualified" teacher? Within the broad federal guidelines each state must make a number of important decisions. But, setting that definition, which many states have done, is not a simple as it may appear. Here are a few of the questions that all states have considered or are still considering in setting their definition:

1. How are they going to define and assess "highly qualified" for all teachers currently teaching, including the emergency and provisionally licensed teachers that are in many classrooms across America?
2. What new, perhaps more refined, definitions and requirements must be in place in time to assure that all new and current teachers meet the broad federal and state definitions by the end of the 2005-2006 school year?
3. How will the stateâ??s definition affect out-of-state teachers? What, if any, additional requirements will be expected of them? Will the requirements be different if they were licensed in another state through "standard" or "alternative" programs?
4. What expectations will be placed upon substitute teachers to become "highly qualified"? Will the expectations vary depending upon the expected term of their substitute service? The Department of Education has recently advised that only long-term substitutes need to be highly qualified.
5. How will "highly qualified" be defined for special education teachers? Will it create the necessity for special education teachers to become licensed in more than one category of special education such as learning disabilities, severe and profound, deaf and blind, etc.? And what will states expect of their subject matter competencies in the core subjects? The Department of Education has recently advised that special education teachers who teach core subjects must still be highly qualified.
6. How will "highly qualified" be determined for bilingual education teachers in states, especially where formal preparation programs are scarce or not available?
7. For out-of-field teachers, those teaching all or part of their day in subjects for which they do not hold a license, which is prohibited by NCLB, how will states address this issue in their "highly qualified" definition?
8. How will states assess the subject matter competency of currently licensed teachers in all the subjects they are licensed teach, especially teachers in rural areas?
9. How will states and local districts organize and deliver the necessary academic and professional development in effective teaching practices necessary to assure timely compliance with the "highly qualified" provisions of NCLB? This is especially critical to rural states, or states with large rural areas.
10. What guidance will the state offer local districts and schools in order to assure state compliance with the annual report disclosing the professional qualifications of teachers and the percent of classes not taught by "highly qualified" teachers?

The Education Commission of the States is tracking the implementation of all provisions of NCLB in all 50 states. This comprehensive data can be seen by clicking onto the NCLB icon on the front page of the ECS website: http://www.ecs.org/. The information is constantly updated as states approve new policies that align with NCLB. For example, Georgia, Iowa, and Missouri, like many other states use Praxis II examinations to assess subject matter competency of program graduates. North Carolina, and other states, also expects "lateral entry" teachers and other alternative licensed teachers to take and pass the Praxis II at the same level as others to be granted a state license to teach. However, each of these states use different versions of the Praxis II tests and have different cut scores and expectations about the use of the test data. For example Iowa currently sets no minimum pass score and uses the test results to provide the legislature with general program performance not individual student performance. All states are revisiting their current requirements based on the expectations of NCLB and as they work to certify that individual teachers are "highly qualified".

The provisions of No Child left Behind requires states to publish an annual report disclosing the professional qualifications of teachers, the percent working with emergency or provisional credentials, and the percent of classes in the state not taught by "highly qualified" teachers. Locally, schools must make available to parents and the public the licensing qualifications of all of its teachers by the end of the 2005-2006 school year.

So, the second big question that reporters should ask is how can schools will be expected to accurately report on the percentage of "highly qualified" teachers and how can they really learn more about the qualifications of particular teachers? For states and communities to be able to respond effectively they must focus on meeting a number of interlocking requirements.

First, they must have answered the first big question above â?? how will they define a "highly qualified" teacher. Second, states have to define "highly qualified" in a way that clearly communicates to new "traditionally prepared" and "alternative route" teachers, prospective out-of-state teachers, and current teachers what they must do to become sufficiently licensed (not necessarily fully licensed) to meet the stateâ??s definition of a "highly qualified" teachers.

Second, states have to develop ways to assess the academic competency of teachers already licensed. It is important to note that annual principal or peer evaluations will not suffice for determining the academic competence of practicing experienced teachers. How do we know this? Several states are writing into their HOUSSE that principals can do the evaluation? It appears that most states will have to administer some kind of test of a teacherâ??s academic competence in (each of) the academic subjects they are teaching. Knowledge tests for elementary school teachers must therefore, at a minimum, test their academic competence in mathematics, reading, science, and social studies. Also, states are developing to designing HOUSSE tools as a means to assess their existing teachersâ?? subject-matter competency that is alternative to testing. These might consider a combination of coursework, classroom plans and artifacts, student achievement data and subject-related professional service. Currently, however, the question is whether such strategies demand the same rigor and content expertise as substantial postsecondary work or subject-matter tests.

Third, local schools, districts and the state must have a data collection and reporting mechanism in place to assure the ability to track and report on its annual progress toward assuring that all teachers are "highly qualified" by the end of the 2005-2006 academic year and for being able to report to the public annually.

Fourth, states must direct NCLB funding and other funding sources to provide access to the high quality professional development necessary to assure that all teachers are "highly qualified" by 2005-2006.

Finally, they must have some agreed-upon protocol for reporting teacher qualifications to parents and the public. School officials must go well beyond just having the data on teacher qualifications available if asked.

Many states simply do not have the sophisticated data collection and reporting systems currently in place to readily report on teacher credentials statewide. However, Kentucky, for example, has already taken the path to creating cross-organizational data collection systems and has created MAX, a computing system that will works cooperatively between the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Teacher Standards Board. Among the obvious benefits is that this approach, when fully operational, will allow entry of data from the teacher preparation programs in all of its public and private colleges and universities, data from all of the local education agencies in the state and data on teacher (and administrator) licensure. The information generated will, with certain minimal restraints, be open for public review.

But, just what states and communities are going to report to parents and others is not entirely self-evident. While the federal definition of "a highly qualified" teacher appears to be very prescriptive, there is latitude for state-level interpretation and implementation. In fact, as already pointed out, NCLB requires the states to further define their stateâ??s definition of "highly qualified" within certain restraints spelled out in the legislation. Importantly stateâ??s definition of "highly qualified" does not have to be the stateâ??s highest level of certification or licensure.

So, another big question to ask is, what are the different kinds of teacher qualifications and do these different levels of licensure assure that we have qualified teachers in our classrooms? What follows is an unofficial "taxonomy" of terms that reporters, parents, and others might find useful as they seek information about the qualifications of teachers in their schools. Linked to each category are some comments or questions that might be asked in order to understand if childrenâ??s teachers meet the federal and stateâ??s definition of a "highly qualified" teacher.

Program Completers in Traditional Teacher Preparation Programs: The public should know if the teachers in their schools have successfully completed a quality teacher preparation program that is approved by the state. If so, these teachers should be fully licensed by the state. Do all schools of education in the state have programs in place that can assure that their graduates meet all of the expectations of "highly qualified" that is described in the federal and state definitions? And, as important, are the teachers teaching in the area for which they are licensed to teach?

Alternative Licensure Program Participants: Most people are probably unaware that their children may have teachers who entered teaching through an alternative route. However, practically all states allow college educated adults who did not initially prepare for teaching to become teachers through various alternative means. The standards for alternative programs (and for many traditional programs) vary widely. Parents should ask about the quality of the alternative route program â?? what evidence can be provided that would provide the public some assurance that the teachers entering classrooms through such routes are at least as well qualified as teachers who prepared for teaching while in college. How will the state assure that such teachers meet the federal and state definition of "highly qualified"?

Provisional License: Some teachers, on the day of hire may lack certain (but generally minor) provisions to qualify for a full license. Or, they may appear to qualify for a full license, but certain required paperwork may not have been completed. Parents may want to know the nature of the "provisional" license. Perhaps the teacher has moved from another state where they were fully licensed and otherwise "highly qualified", but their new state has a state history requirement that the teacher will need to take. But, if the teacher is not teaching state history, parents should not be overly alarmed. Teachers prepared and licensed out-of-state may also need to meet a different set of testing standards in their new state in order to gain a full license. Reciprocity across state lines is general problem nationwide, but states are getting better at managing the differences in their licensing standards in ways that do not impede highly qualified teachers from entering the classroom. How teachers are supported to remove the "provisional" status in the shortest time possible should be a concern to the local schools and the state.

It is important to note that in some states, the term "provisional" is used to describe entry level (though fully certified) teachers â?? not teachers who do not yet have licenses. It is important to distinguish between these teachers and those with "provisional" licenses who have not yet met the requirements for certification or who are entering from out-of-state.

Emergency and Temporary Licensure: Some states and districts grant "emergency" and/or "temporary" licenses to teach for people who are not prepared to teach through any route â?? traditional or alternative. Some states and districts grant these licenses, which waive the usual credentialing requirements, for someone to teach at a level or in a subject for which they are not prepared. Normally, such permits or licenses are for a short duration and are granted with stipulations that the individual must seek to remedy the condition that led to the granting of such a license. These licenses would not meet the minimal federal provisions of NCLB, thus some states and communities are trying to find ways to cope with this, sometimes necessary, avenue into the classroom. The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing had voted to phase out emergency teaching permits and credential waivers and to begin aligning the state's teacher certification process with a recently adopted state board of education plan and the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. However, this action has been suspended until the Commission has an opportunity to collect additional information about the impact on school districts and county offices of education in implementing the discontinuance of emergency permits and credential waivers.

The public in general and parents in particular should be concerned about teachers holding emergency or temporary licenses. Local school districts must provide the necessary support to such teachers to gain a full license in the areas they are teaching and to become compliant with the "highly qualified" teacher provisions of NCLB.

Substitute Teachers: In many communities experiencing difficulties in attracting and retaining teachers substitute teachers may constitute a sizable number of the teachers in classrooms in any given school. Parents in those communities should ask about the qualifications and licenses of those serving as substitute teachers â?? especially if the substitutes are in classrooms over long periods of time.

As mentioned above by the end of the 2005-6 school year all current practicing elementary, middle, and secondary teachers must be determined to be "highly qualified" under the federal and state definitions as well. NCLB focuses specifically on elementary teachers, since they teach so many different academic subjects. For states that mandate principal and/or peer observations and evaluations of teachers, they must determine if those policies can be utilized as tools to assess the competencies of teachers as part of confirming if they are "highly qualified". Thus far, it appears that in most states, such observations are not sufficient to assure academic competence and many states are considering test of academic content for all teachers who have not been administered such tests in becoming a licensed elementary teacher in the past. This applies to middle grades and secondary teachers as well.

How are states progressing on the requirement to report to the public on the qualifications of their teachers? Within recent months state officials in Alabama stated their intent to refuse to comply with this provision of NCLB. The consequence for not doing so is uncertain at this writing. Other states and districts are moving aggressively to develop local reporting procedures that give parents rather full information about the qualifications of their teachers.

Readers are encouraged to visit the ECS No Child Left Behind website for much more information about what states are doing to meet the "highly qualified" teacher provisions and much more: http://nclb.ecs.org/nclb/

Charles R. Coble
Vice President, Policy Studies and Programs &
Executive Director, Teaching Quality Policy Center
Education Commission of the States

Jennifer Azordegan
Researcher
Teaching Quality Policy Center
Education Commission of the States