Washington – By the end of the school year, every teacher of every major subject in every school will be highly qualified.
That’s the government’s promise, anyway.
The reality will be far less rosy, say experts who have analyzed how states are responding to President Bush’s education law and its unprecedented review of teacher quality.
As the centerpiece of his domestic agenda, the No Child Left Behind Act aims to dramatically improve learning by ensuring that all students have highly qualified teachers.
Yet in a nation of 3 million teachers, the definition of highly qualified varies widely and may not ensure quality at all – not what Bush and Congress intended.
Given considerable leeway, many states are declaring their teachers to be highly qualified without making sure those teachers know their subjects, independent reviews show.
The law also lacks specific penalties for states that fail to get all their teachers qualified, which could hamper enforcement by the Education Department.
Already, most states say that more than 90 percent of their teachers are highly qualified. But the notion that top teachers fill most classrooms is greeted skeptically because of questions over how the states define quality and how they collect their data.
“It’s an unkept promise,” said Chester Finn Jr., a former assistant education secretary who runs the Fordham Foundation think tank in Washington. “Worse yet, it’s the illusion of a kept promise.”
Under the law, states have until the end of the 2005-06 school year to make sure teachers in every core class, from math and science to arts and languages, have a bachelor’s degree and a state license or certificate and are competent in every subject they teach. Teachers in isolated, rural areas have an extra year to qualify.
The requirement that teachers are competent in their subjects is the driving force as the government tries for the first time to ensure teachers know their subjects.
Teachers can prove they know their content by passing a test or having a major in each subject they handle. But many teachers find those options unrealistic or demeaning.
So veteran teachers often qualify under a third option not available to new teachers – meeting a state standard of quality.
Many states use point systems to grade whether teachers are experts, giving credit for conferences attended or committees served on. Other factors include years in the classroom, teaching awards and job evaluations. Some states use gains in test scores by a teacher’s students; other say having a state license is simply good enough.
To teachers, the process is often confusing, burdensome and ill-focused.
The law aims to make sure a math teacher knows math. But it does not measure a teacher’s devotion or ability to connect with students.
“It has nothing to do with me as a teacher,” said Terrie Tudor, a drama teacher from Wheaton, Ill. “It’s a legal definition and a document. That’s what we’re trying to reach.”
