Federal deadline on teacher certification coming next month

~ Few Missouri districts have achieved the federal target of all teachers being rated highly qualified.

Their students' ACT scores are higher than the statewide average.

They have more teaching experience and have fewer students drop out of school than the statewide average.

Their students are twice as likely to go on to a four-year college after high school than other students in Missouri.

But according to the federal government, they're not highly qualified.

That's the situation the Leopold School District -- and hundreds of other small, rural schools in Missouri -- face as the July deadline to meet the federal No Child Left Behind Act's requirement for 100 percent of classes to be taught by highly qualified teachers approaches.

At Leopold, the irony is that while 100 percent of the teachers are fully certified by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, only 84 percent are considered highly qualified.

Under No Child Left Behind, teachers must be certified in all of the subjects and grade levels they teach to be highly qualified.

"We're so small, we have a hard time finding teachers qualified in all the areas we need them to teach," said Derek Urhahn, superintendent at Leopold.

In Urhahn's district, a math teacher might also take on business classes and physical education classes. Or an art teacher might also teach Spanish and family and consumer sciences.

The penalties

Originally, NCLB required that all core subject classes (math, science, language arts and social studies) be taught by highly qualified teachers by the end of the 2005-2006 school year. States that failed to meet that requirement face financial penalties from the federal government.

In May, the U.S. Department of Education announced that no states were on track to meet the requirement.

Based on the 2005 school report cards -- the latest data available from DESE -- fewer than 40 of the 524 school districts in Missouri had achieved the 100 percent target, including all Southeast Missouri districts.

Jackson School District comes the closest at 99.9 percent of classes taught by highly qualified teacher. Cape Girardeau School District had 95.9 percent highly qualified in 2005, and Scott City had 97.2 percent.

Because so many districts were struggling, Missouri and several other states have asked the U.S. Department of Education for a one-year extension on the requirement's deadline.

Randy Rook, DESE's director of federal grants management, said he will know whether Missouri has received the extension in July.

"Missouri has some advantages other states don't have," Rook said.

For one, the state has required subject matter of testing using an assessment called Praxis since the 1990s, said Rook.

The alternatives

For those teachers who are not currently "highly qualified," there are a few choices for coming into compliance:

* Teachers can demonstrate that they are highly qualified by taking an assessment to prove their knowledge of a particular subject.

* Teachers can go back to college to get the necessary courses and/or degree(s) needed to teach a particular subject.

Leopold's Carlton Thoma is among those currently teaching subjects they are not certified in. In Thoma's case, his original bachelor's degree is business administration, but his lifetime teaching certification is in math. At Leopold, Thoma teaches high school math and a business class.

Under the federal law, he is not qualified to teach the business class.

"I actually have more experience in business than in math," said Thoma, who also teaches physical education classes.

For those classes he isn't certified in, Thoma said he puts in extra ime preparing and making sure he's following the school's curriculum guidelines.

He isn't sure what the new requirement will eventually mean for him, but he is certain of one thing:

"I know people with doctorates, people with master's and bachelor's," he said. "And just because you have a master's degree or a doctorate doesn't make you a better teacher. That comes down to being able to teach, to get the attention of your students, and to meet your objectives."

Why Missouri is behind

Educators say there are several reasons districts are struggling to find highly qualified teachers.

"The standards are very high for all of the goals NCLB requires," said Rook. "There's the lofty goal of having all students proficient by 2014. The steps required to get there are tough, and no question part of that process has to be highly qualified teachers."

For smaller schools, it's often lack of incentives such as low salaries that makes finding good candidates difficult.

"We're fortunate that we do get applicants and are able to fill positions that way," said Dr. Rita Fisher, assistant superintendent for the Jackson School District, where 99 percent of classes are taught by highly qualified teachers. "But I'm sure smaller districts are having a tough time."

Fisher said even Jackson -- the largest district in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Scott or Perry counties -- has seen a shortage of teachers in certain subject areas in recent years.

"Math and science have become difficult. We're losing those high-level math and physics teachers because they can make more money in a different field," said Fisher.

Overall though, Fisher feels this NCLB requirement is a positive one.

"Every child does deserve to have a highly qualified teacher," she said.

For smaller schools, making that happen means helping teachers get the extra college classes or take the tests needed to become certified.

"We have a responsibility as school districts to continue professional development with teachers so that it's not just that piece of paper that says we're highly qualified, but that we are actually highly qualified," Fisher said.

cmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128