NON - Highly Qualified Teachers in Every Classroom

Well, we knew this would happen. The states have not gotten
up to speed on the highly qualified teacher (HQT) requirements in time to meet
the federal deadline. But, in an interesting turn of events, the Department of
Education is holding firm to the demands, singling out specific states, and
threatening the withdrawal of federal dollars.



Last Friday, Assistant Secretary of Education Henry Johnson attempted to draw
the line in the sand. In a speech he called out the states, some states in
particular, for their poor efforts at implementation, and required every state
to explain (again) how it will have its teachers highly qualified in the 06-07
school year. The states Johnson singled out as in danger of losing some of
their federal education funding are:



Alaska,
Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota,
Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina and Washington, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.



In addition other states are still under review.



Departing from the Edjurist's normal tone, there really is little excuse for
the states on this one, and one cannot blame the Department of Ed. for getting
frustrated. After President Bush's reelection for a second term, the wait and
see approach (hoping the Congress or the Department would relax the demands) was
unjustified. The states were obviously hoping the Department would close its
eyes to the slow implementation. Well, the department didn't and now the states
are scrambling to comply.



Now, this is not say there is not still a legitimate question as to the nature
of the HQT requirement, especially concerning special education. However, it is
the law and if states want funding they must comply.



Here is the link to the AP
story at CNN.



Here are the
letters to the states from the Department of Ed. concerning their 'good
faith' (or lack thereof) efforts at implementation.



For an explanation of the Highly Qualified Teacher definition, see Azordegan
and Coble (ECS) here.