Double Deadline

NCLB says teachers and Title I paras should be 'highly qualified' by the end of the school year.

The deadlines just keep on coming with the federal so-called No Child Left Behind law (NCLB), and there are two big ones this school year for teachers and instructional paraprofessionals in Title I schools.

Teachers in "core content" areas, including English, math, and many other subjects, must be "highly qualified" by the end of the school year. So must instructional paras. There's no automatic penalty for districts that don't reach this target, but the law allows federal officials to withhold Title I funds.

Most teachers have already qualified, but the rules make it very hard for some, especially special education teachers who teach several subjects in secondary schools. They must show knowledge equivalent to a college major in each field they teach.

Many special education teachers say their years of success in teaching proves they are qualified. But others say the new standards are worthy. "I may know math," says Austin Naughton, a Pasadena, California, special education teacher with a major in history, "but I don't have the mathematical expertise to explain it in multiple ways so the kids who struggle the most will get it." Naughton says he should be helping a trained math teacher reach these children, not teaching math on his own.

That's not an option for many special education teachers, however.

Tom Blanford, associate director of NEA Teacher Quality, says teachers hired under the old rules should get all the financial support and time they need to requalify under the new ones. Instead, he says, most districts are "throwing it all on the backs of the individual teachers."

Rural schools pose another problem because one teacher may teach several subjects. In May 2003, Alaska's Republican Sen. Ted Stevens invited former Education Secretary Rod Paige to see for himself how the rules play out on the ground. The first problem was getting onto the ground—the airstrip at the remote village Paige planned to visit (student population about 35) was a mass of thawing mud. Paige had to borrow a military Black Hawk helicopter. Afterwards, he gave Alaskans an extra year to get qualified.

Many teachers across the country are meeting the new standards by using a provision of NCLB that resulted from intensive NEA lobbying. It lets teachers become "highly qualified" through a "Highly Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation" (HOUSSE) instead of a written content knowledge test. The HOUSSE can give teachers credit for successful experience in teaching. NEA state affiliates are working hard to get their states to carry out this part of the law in a practical, common-sense way.

NEA has put together a new flow chart filled with boxes and arrows and extra instructions to help teachers navigate the maze leading to the land of "highly qualified." 

Education support professionals, meanwhile, are doing some navigating of their own. Last summer, federal officials agreed to postpone the deadline for instructional Title I paras to the end of the school year, in sync with the teachers' deadline. It had  been January 8, 2006.

Even the new deadline will be hard for many paras. "Highly qualified" for a para means two years of college, an associate's degree, or equivalent academic skills. The law allows for a local evaluation of skills, but most states are using paper-and-pencil (or computer) tests. Several NEA state affiliates offer programs to help paras qualify.

—Alain Jehlen