15 April 2006

"Highly Qualified"

I didn't realize that all it takes to be a "highly qualified" teacher according to NCLB is a Bachelor's degree, a piece of paper, and "proven competency." I thought it required the Master's degree. Man, I'm *more* than highly qualified in physics. Apparently the ones they're worrying about are Math and a few others - that would explain why when I was job hunting a couple years ago the Math ones had more exacting requirements.

Alaska's the worst - partially because they're all one-room school houses and the poor teachers teach multiple subjects. Article ends with an amusing "don't despair" note: they get a single extra year to become highly qualified in all of their subjects!

2 comments:

Eric said...

what level do you teach at?

zandperl said...

I actually teach at a 2-year college, but when I was job hunting a couple years ago though, I got HS Physics certification. It was surprisingly easy to get the lowest level ("provisional"? I forget, depends on your state): take an English test and a Physics test that was only a little harder than the SAT II subject test, send transcripts (proving a bachelor's degree) to the state DOE, and pay a fee for all of the above.

I see on your profile that you're a physics student. I hope you take the time to come on back with questions or discussion. :)