Feds approve state plan on qualified teachers

Utah's plan to put a highly qualified teacher in every classroom finally got the nod from federal educators after months of revising state policies.

The state's updated plan comes after it failed to meet an original plan to have a highly qualified teacher in all core subjects by the end of the 2005-06 school year. Those 100 percent bench- marks set by the No Child Left Behind federal education reform law did not materialize for any state, prompting the U.S. Department of Education to give states another chance to revise their plans.

The state's updated plan — presented to the State Board of Education on Wednesday — outlines some of the highest-needs schools in the state and addresses how state education leaders will work with districts to meet the highly qualified teacher goal.

Currently, about 75 percent of Utah instructors teaching core classes are considered highly qualified, up about 6 percent from 2003. Roughly 84 percent of core subject teachers in elementary schools are considered highly qualified, with about 72 percent in high schools.

Ninety-one Utah schools met the 100 percent highly qualified benchmark by the end of the 2005-06 school year, including 10 schools with high percentages of poor and minority students.

"Utah believes that its process has resulted in a plan that supports schools and districts in the state's goal and ongoing effort to ensure that each child in Utah receives high-quality instruction throughout the public school experience," Utah's plan states.

A big part of Utah's game plan is a different approach to the highly qualified dilemma, which says teachers must have a degree and a state license in the subject that they teach. Utah's plan tweaks federal language, replacing the term highly qualified teacher with highly qualified assignment.

While a teacher may have an advanced degree in chemistry, for example, he or she would not be considered highly qualified to teach a biology course.

"Utah finds that the term highly qualified teacher is often misunderstood, miscommunicates the require- ments of NCLB, and inaccurately portrays the overall quality and professionalism of teachers," the updated Utah plan states.

Among Utah's goals is to up the number of highly qualified assignments in elementary schools from 86 percent to 95 percent by September 2007. The state also aims to increase those highly qualified assignments in elementary special education programs from 4 to 80 percent in the same time frame.

In high schools, the state hopes to increase highly qualified assignments in core high school classes to 95 percent by the 2008-09 school year.

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