The K-12 establishment in North Dakota is upset after learning that the plan advanced to establish elementary teachers as highly qualified has been rejected. Part of the frustration is that the 120 day federal review period had long passed (19 months later).
While it is hard to be against providing students access to “qualified teachers”, I was involved in developing the skills of at least some of these teachers and to me the issues are much more complex than NCLB makes it seem. Perhaps the feds have a plan for attracting highly qualified elementary teachers to rural classrooms for 10K less than they can make elsewhere. Perhaps there is a plan for encouraging older teachers in these same settings to spend the time and money necessary to “upgrade” when retirement seems so much easier.
A recent EdWeek article describes the qualification of veteran teachers as a common problem.
