No Child Left Behind requires that, by 2005-6, all classes must be taught by "highly qualified" teachers. That means a teacher must have a college degree, state certification, and demonstrated mastery of the subject s/he teaches. But as with many NCLB provisions, it's up to the states to set their own benchmarks for certification and subject-area mastery. Statistics released this week by the Associated Press cast doubt on whether they're setting those bars high enough to meet the spirit of the "highly qualified" provision. According to AP, of the 39 states that have reported teacher quality data, 30 said that more than half of the classes in the state are now taught by "highly qualified" teachers. And 11 states - Wisconsin, Idaho, Arkansas, Connecticut, Minnesota, Indiana, Massachusetts, Utah, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming - reported that there is a highly qualified teacher in at least 95 percent of their classrooms. These results come as a surprise to experts who have long noted the high rate of out-of-field teaching that exists in U.S. schools, particularly high-poverty schools. According to Ross Weiner of the Education Trust, such numbers "should be viewed with a skeptical eye. . . . If there are real problems to address, states have done a real disservice by suggesting that there are no teacher-quality issues...."
"States report range of teacher quality," by Ben Feller, Associated Press, October 21, 2003
"Teacher standards are too broad, experts say," by Fredreka Schouten, Detroit News, October 22, 2003