Leave it to the Federal Government to fuck things up.
All over our district, teachers' names are popping up on principals' desks tagged as NOT "highly qualified."
Are they first-year teachers? No, they are not.
Are they lateral-entry teachers, who do not yet have certification? No, not at all.
Are they teachers certified in one area, but teaching in an area in which they are not certified? Nice guess, but nope.
Are they crappy teachers with action plans who couldn't teach their way out of a wet paper bag, as evidenced by ghastly standardized test scores? Hahahahahahahaha, of course not, silly!
All of those people are fine, and pop up on their personnel records screen as "highly qualified."
The teachers who are on this list are: our most experienced faculty and certified in the areas in which they teach (as well as several others, usually) and many of them also have their National Board certificates (which should give you a good idea what that piece of paper is worth).
And no, it's not a computer glitch, they really aren't "highly qualified," as defined by the Federales. And, if my office doesn't do some follow-up procedures with them before the end of the month (and we are, no worries) they really would be in some deep shit.
Why are these people in this mess? Because they were given their certification before the state required that they take the Praxis II, a standardized test of pedagogy within a specific content area. That's right, they are not "highly qualified" because 20 years ago they didn't take a test.
posted by Holley Wilson Mayville @ 8:05 PM
4 Comments:
One of my co-workers went to our state university (only one; small state), majored in elementary ed, graduated in '97, took all the required tests, taught for 6 years, and was found not-HQ.
I, on the other hand, went to a small liberal arts college in another state, majored in psych, got my teaching cert. in elem., took all the tests, came home, got my Masters of Arts in Teaching with Internet Technology (no teacher cert granted), taught computer skills for 4 years and no problem getting my HQ.
Gee, that makes sense.
I got a good for you too. I taught physical education for 5 years, left teaching and let my certificate expire. I took my 9 hours as required by the state and re-took the Alabama Prospective Teacher Test and still wasn't HQ...why? Because I didn't take the Praxis II...I go take it to find out that the test is only an example and by taking it, no matter what I score, I am HQ..they will use the first year of scores to make a norm by.....yea,...weird folks!
Did I mention I'm almost finished with my masters in counseling...to go with t hat
typing with a kid in my lap, sorry, you may have to read bettween the lines
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