"Whose definition of highly qualified are we looking at? From what perspective?" she said. "From somebody who has never been in the classroom? Who has never gone through the teacher preparation courses? Who has never been through the ups and downs of education?"

Teachers' unions and state leaders say they believe states have tried to strike a balance, following the law while being fair to veteran instructors.

"I think ours is a good system," Rusk said. "It's one that's been developed over time, and it's constantly being changed — so it isn't we made the rule, and this is it, and we're done with it."

Said Deputy Education Secretary Raymond Simon: "I think states are making valiant efforts."

It is fair for states to use several ways to evaluate longtime teachers rather than force them to go back to school or pass an exam, said Tom Blanford, a teacher quality leader at the National Education Association.

If teachers were forced to pass tests, he said, "the number of take-this-job-and-shove-it notices that school districts would receive would be staggering."

Jean Miller, who oversees teacher quality for the Council of Chief State School Officers, said crediting teachers for working on a curriculum committee, for example, makes sense. It shows they know fine details of the content they teach, she said. Asked if most states are genuinely measuring subject knowledge, she said: "I really do have confidence in that."

Others, resoundingly, do not. Among them are:

• The Education Trust, which advocates for poor and minority children. The group found many state standards are "so lax as to include virtually every teacher in the state, regardless of actual demonstration of content knowledge."

• The nonpartisan Education Commission of the States. It said most states do not use objective criteria, creating a "trap door" for teachers to escape the intent of the law.

• The independent Center on Education Policy. It cited lenient standards as one reason that states and districts report such high numbers of highly qualified teachers.

• The National Center on Teacher Quality. The reform group said many states have inflated teachers' competency by giving them credit for mentoring or committee work of years ago. Such moves have "gutted the law's opportunity to achieve meaningful reform," the center reports.

Teachers take offense at such criticisms.

Laverne Miller, a 36-year teacher in Honolulu, helped design her state's standard. Teachers must get 100 points to qualify and can earn credit by taking or having taken college courses in their content area.

Some teachers were surprised to learn they could count such classes. But Miller told them, "What makes you think the courses you took 30 years ago are not good enough to consider you highly qualified?"

The Education Department is increasing enforcement of the law, asking states to justify their definitions of highly qualified. The agency may withhold money if states do not accurately report on the quality of their teachers, said Simon, the deputy secretary.

"I have confidence that states are trying to do the right thing," Simon said. "We've tried to be as flexible with them as we can."

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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com