LANSING—Teachers should determine now if they meet the “highly qualified” requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, a Michigan Department of Education consultant said.

“We think teachers should take the responsibility of determining if they are highly qualified so they will have time to correct any deficiencies and meet the highly qualified definition,” MDE consultant Frank Ciloski said.

The No Child act requires that all teachers achieve highly qualified status by the end of the 2005-06 school year.

“Most teachers don’t seem to be too concerned at this time,” Ciloski said, “but they really need to determine today if they are highly qualified because 2005-06 isn’t that far away. It’s better they know now.”

Teachers should not refuse to complete documents provided by districts indicating if they are or are not highly qualified. Districts must report this information so MDE can show the federal government that Michigan is making progress toward all teachers being highly qualified.

There’s no jeopardy in reporting “not highly qualified,” since teachers have until 2005-06 to demonstrate they meet the requirements.

“Most of our teachers meet the highly qualified requirements,” Ciloski said, “but we’ll have some who have been misplaced by districts in assignments they are not certified to teach. We need to identify them, so they can take the steps to become highly qualified.”

Taking responsibility
Some EA locals around the state are taking the lead in determining if their members are highly qualified.

The Ann Arbor EA, for example, conducted a workshop on “highly qualified” teachers for all building representatives and school principals on Feb. 16.

“Locals need to take charge of this on behalf of their members,” Ann Arbor EA President Linda Carter said. “We’ve had five meetings regarding the highly qualified issue since December. Let’s work with our members now to make sure everyone meets the highly qualified designation by 2005-06.”

Under the No Child Left Behind legislation, all teachers of core academic subjects must be highly qualified. Core academic subjects include English, reading, language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts (visual arts, theater, instrumental and vocal music, dance), history and government. In general, if Michigan teachers are certified and teaching in the core academic subject areas in which they have a major or have passed the appropriate subject area exam of the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification, they are deemed highly qualified.

Go to www.mea.org/nclb for additional options for demonstrating highly qualified status. Further, the materials on this site will benefit local associations as they work in collaboration with districts on an action plan to ensure that all teachers in core academic areas are highly qualified by June 2006.