By Fritz Edelstein
March 29, 2004

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced on March 15 three new policies giving teachers greater flexibility in demonstrating that they are highly qualified under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The Act stated very clearly that one goal was to ensure that every child in America is taught by a teacher who knows his or her subject. The flexibility included in the new policy clarifies how a teacher can become highly qualified and the Act continues the promise that every child can reach his or her full potential.

The new policies take effect immediately. Only two of the three changes have an impact on teachers in urban school districts. The changes are a result of numerous conversations, summits, roundtables, visits to states and schools, and correspondence. All of these expressed or indicated serious concerns over the challenges in meeting the 2005-2006 school year deadline stated in the law that every teacher be highly qualified.

The highly qualified teacher requirements in the statute had raised many concerns for both urban and rural school systems. Of greatest concern was their ability to recruit and hire teachers that met the Act's definition of highly qualified by the deadline. Both urban and rural communities have in recent years found it very difficult to find, recruit and hire teachers for specific subjects. Added to this problem the requirements of the law made it almost impossible to be in compliance. These policy changes bring a bit more flexibility to the process and provide these districts with an opportunity to meet the deadline.

The two policies that have an affect on urban districts are for science teachers and current teachers of multiple subjects. The Department's guidance now allows states the flexibility to use their own certification standards to determine subject-matter competency, rather than requiring it for each science subject. For example, if a state certifies teachers in the general science field, a science teacher may demonstrate subject-matter competency through a "broad field" test or a major. If a state requires certification or licensure in the specific science subjects, such as chemistry, biology, physics, the teacher would be required to demonstrate competency in each subject taught.

The other policy assists current teachers who teach multiple subjects. This is particularly true for middle or junior high schools and those teaching students with special needs. Under the Act, current teachers have the option — instead of taking a test or going back to school — to demonstrate subject matter competency through a process called HOUSSE (High, Objective, Uniform State Standard of Evaluation). The HOUSSE may include a teacher's years of experience, high-quality professional development success as measured by a teacher's students- test scores, continuing education and other objective evaluations. The policy change allows states to streamline this process by allowing teachers to demonstrate subject-matter knowledge through one procedure for all subjects they teach while maintaining the same high standard for subject-matter mastery.

The Department will be developing a website to share information about the initiatives at the state and local levels, summer institutes for teachers and a National Teacher Summit to be held later in 2004. This information is available on www.teacherquality.us.

These policy changes follow two other changes made recently that gave more flexibility in determining accounting for English language learning students and students with special needs and the assessments they take.

The Conference believes these changes will assist cities and school districts in better implementing the No Child Left Behind Act.

For more background information about the three significant policy changes for NCLB, go to the following press releases from the U.S. Department of Education:

• Increased flexibility for students with disabilities — www.ed.gov./nclb/freedom/local/specedfactsheet.pdf
• Increased flexibility for limited-English proficient students — www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/ schools/factsheet-english
• Increased flexibility for the highly qualified teacher requirement — www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/ teachers/hqtflexibility