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What is Highly Qualified?
Managing NCLB Data
NCLB Links
Resources and Info:
What is Highly Qualified?
Managing NCLB Data
NCLB Links
|
How "Highly
Qualified" is Determined
The ESEA act of 2001, known
as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), established a number of new
standards for teachers and other educational instruction employees. The
most important of these is the requirement that all teachers of certain
core academic subjects be “Highly Qualified”. (Sometimes called an HQT
-Highly Qualified Teacher)
The term Highly Qualified is a government coined phrase meant to denote
that the instructor has demonstrated, in an objective forum, a minimum
level of subject-related content knowledge. It should not be confused
with “Highly Effective”.
The NCLB act requires all teachers in Title I programs to meet its
definition of "highly qualified" by the 2006-2007 school year. In order
to be "highly qualified," a teacher must have a full state certification
and meet other requirements outlined by the legislation.
The following list shows the Content Areas that have been defined as
requiring a “Highly Qualified” teacher. If you instruct a content area
that is not listed below, then you are exempt from the Federal Highly
Qualified standards.
PLEASE NOTE: Being Highly Qualified does not waive any state or district
defined requirements and certifications that govern the content area in
which you teach.
NCLB Core Content Areas:
English
Reading or Language Arts
Mathematics
Science
Foreign Languages
Civics and Government
Economics
Arts
History
Geography
There are two ways to demonstrate that a teacher is “Highly
Qualified”
1) The Federal Government Testing Standard
2) The State-based HOUSSE Evaluation
| The Federal Government Testing Standard is very objective and quite easy
to understand: |
| 1 |
Hold a minimum of a Bachelors degree from an Accredited University |
| 2 |
Hold a current, active, teaching certificate in the state in which you
teach |
| 3 |
Have passed a state-based subject /content area test in the subject(s)
in which you teach. |
In most states, this standard has been in place for many years and most
new teachers will have already demonstrated their “Highly Qualified”
status before being hired.
The issue of “Highly Qualified” is of most interest to experienced
teachers and those who might be teaching “Out-of-Field”.
For these people, the federal government has allowed each state to
define a rubric of experience, education, and activities that serve as
an “Alternate” method of demonstrating that they are “Highly Qualified”.
This rubric is called HOUSSE – The High Objective and Uniform State
Standard of Evaluation and the guidance for each State’s HOUSSE rubric
is also quite clear and must:
| HOUSSE: High Objective and
Uniform State Standard of Evaluation |
| 1 |
Be set by the State for both grade-appropriate academic subject matter
knowledge and teaching skills; |
| 2 |
Be aligned with challenging State academic content and student
academic achievement standards and developed in consultation with core
content specialists, teachers, principals, and school administrators;
|
| 3 |
Provide objective, coherent information about the teacher's attainment
of core content knowledge in the academic subjects in which a teacher
teaches; |
| 4 |
Be applied uniformly to all teachers in the same academic subject and
teaching in the same grade level throughout the State; |
| 5 |
Take into consideration, but not be based primarily on, the time the
teacher has been teaching in the academic subject; and |
| 6 |
Be made
available to the public upon request |
The statute also permits the States, when developing their HOUSSE
procedures, to involve multiple, objective measures of teacher
competency. Each evaluation should have a high, objective, uniform
standard that the candidate is expected to meet or exceed. These
standards for evaluation must be applied to each candidate in the same
way.
The WinOcular
Employee Portfolio and Evaluation Software
is designed to automate the data gathering process, organize the
information and instantly analyze your teachers to determine their
Highly Qualified status.
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