WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) today praised the U.S. Department of Education’s decision to provide added flexibility to enable teachers to meet the “highly qualified” requirement that is part of the historic ‘No Child Left Behind’ (NCLB) Act.
“I’m pleased that the Department of Education is working with educators to ensure NCLB is implemented in a reasonable and effective manner,” said Frist. “Requiring that teachers be highly qualified in their subject is intended to help improve student achievement. However, every school has unique circumstances and needs. This new regulation, which provides needed flexibility, will help accommodate such challenges while still maintaining the high standards the program sets to ensure every child reaches their full potential.”
He said the new policies will impact three particular areas of education, including the requirements for rural teachers, science teachers and multi-subject teachers. Under the current guidelines, teachers must meet a number of qualifications including obtaining a bachelor’s degree, full state certification or licensure, and proving that they know each subject they teach. To determine content knowledge, they must accomplish one of the following: have a major in the particular subject area; have credits equivalent to a major; pass a series of testing known as High, Objective, Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE); receive an advanced certification from the state; or have a graduate degree. However, added flexibility is needed to accommodate the special challenges many rural, science and multi-subject teachers face.
Approximately one-third or around 5,000 of all school districts in the nation are considered rural. Teachers in these areas face unique challenges -- most notable is that teachers are often required to teach more than one academic subject. Under the new policy, teachers in rural districts who are highly qualified in at least one subject will have three years to become highly qualified in the additional subject areas. They must also be provided professional development, intense supervision or structured mentoring to become highly qualified in those additional subjects.
He said science teachers face similar challenges since they are often needed to teach in more than one field of science. The certification also varies from state to state. Under the new policy, states may now determine – based on their current certification requirements – to allow science teachers to demonstrate that they are highly qualified with in a “broad field” or individual fields of science.
Sen. Frist said added flexibility has also been included for multi-subject teachers. To meet highly qualified requirements, NCLB allowed states to create an alternative method for teachers to certify that they know the subject they teach, but the process is repetitive for each subject. The new policy allows states to streamline the evaluation process by developing a one-process testing method instead of requiring them to take multiple tests.
He said this new regulation "comes on the heels of two other recently released regulations that also provided added flexibility in meeting the requirements of NCLB. Those regulations provided flexibility for the testing of special education and limited English proficient students. More information about those regulations and the new “highly qualified” regulation may be viewed by accessing http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/edpicks.jhtml?src=fp."
NCLB was signed into law in 2001, and designed to improve student achievement and ensure that all children have access to a high qualified education. Implementation of the law is one of Frist’s priorities, he said. He is a leading advocate for education reform, including the Ed-Flex Bill which he introduced and was signed into law in 1999.