Vol. 41, No. 3
January 18 , 2007
CONTACT: JIM MORRIS |
This Just In: 96% of Public School Classes Are Taught By
“Highly Qualified” Teachers; State Plan Wins Federal OK
The U.S. Department of Education has approved Missouri’s plan for increasing the percentage of public schoolteachers who are “highly qualified” under federal law.
The decision resolves a disagreement which began last summer when the U.S. Department of Education criticized Missouri and three other states for failing to submit adequate information about the qualifications of teachers working in public schools.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education submitted a new state plan last November, including updated statistics gathered from 524 Missouri school districts. Federal officials notified DESE in December that the revised plan had been approved.
Staff of the state education agency presented a report about the “highly qualified teacher” plan to the State Board of Education during its meeting last week (Jan. 11-12) in Jefferson City.
“We are happy to put this matter behind us,” said Commissioner of Education
D. Kent King. “Missouri teachers got some undeserved negative publicity last summer because of this bureaucratic disagreement. Although our system is not perfect, we believe Missouri’s teachers are as well-qualified as any in the nation and that state standards put a strong emphasis on teacher quality.”
The federal No Child Left Behind Act required all teachers in core academic areas to be “highly qualified” by the end of the last school year (2005-06). No state met that standard, and all states have been required to take additional steps to address issues related to teacher quality.
To be deemed “highly qualified,” a teacher must have a bachelor’s degree, full state certification for each assignment, and “demonstrated competency” in each subject that he or she teaches. For most teachers, “demonstrated competency” means passing the test that is now required to earn a state teaching certificate.
There were about 68,500 teachers in Missouri public schools last year. Of those, more than 16,500 were long-time teachers who received their certificates before September 1988, when the state began requiring new teachers to pass a test in order to qualify for a license.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education resisted federal pressure to collect more information about those veteran teachers to determine if they would meet the “highly qualified” criteria.
When federal officials threatened to withhold funding, DESE agreed to collect more data. Teachers and school officials across the state worked with state officials during September and October to verify the qualifications of veteran teachers.
Nearly all teachers met the standards under alternative criteria that are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. These criteria include years of experience, earning a master’s degree, earning National Board certification, and meeting other measures of subject-area knowledge and teaching ability.
The federal law also requires states to evaluate the percentages of highly qualified teachers working in high-poverty and low-poverty schools and to reduce disparities that may exist.
According to the revised state plan submitted by DESE, 96.3% of all the classes in core academic areas in Missouri public schools (more than 164,000 classes) were taught last year by highly qualified teachers. This rate was virtually identical for elementary schools (96.4%) and high schools (96.3%).
There are significant differences, however, among high-poverty and low-poverty schools. These categories are based on the proportion of students who qualify for free or reduced-cost meals at school.
For example, in low-poverty high schools, more than 98 percent of the classes were taught be highly qualified teachers last year. In high-poverty schools, the percentage was only 89.1%. State education officials will be working with school districts and charter schools that have the largest numbers of under-qualified teachers in an effort to reduce such disparities.
Missouri’s Revised State Plan on Highly Qualified Teacher Plan is available online.
For more information, contact: Randy Rook, director of federal grants management, at 573-751-3468.