Highly Qualified Teachers

According to a report presented to Congress, as of 2000 many teachers did not meet the qualifications to be considered highly qualified. In fact, only slight more than half, 54% on average, met such qualifications. In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act requires that by 2005, there will be highly qualified teachers in all four core subjects. To be considered highly qualified, a teacher must have a bachelor's degree, be a state certified teacher, and have shown competence in teaching their subject area.

What does this mean to you as a teacher? At this point, the future results of this act are unclear. However, you can expect that more scrutiny will be placed on what you do and how your students achieve. Even though it is controversial to judge teachers by how their students do on standardized and other exams, this could be the result in the not-too-distant future. As a profession, we must come up with strategies to combat the ills of absenteeism and often severe lack of parental involvement in the learning and discipline process.