No Child Left Behind - Teachers

Public Record 107-110, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), creates requirements designed to ensure that all public elementary, middle, and secondary teachers of record who are assigned to teach core academic subjects meet the federal definition of a "highly qualified' teacher.

A "teacher of record" is defined as a teacher who provides primary instruction and gives the grades for the assigned core subjects.

Core Subjects NCLB

Elementary Reading Language Arts Mathematics Journalism English

Arts (Music, Drama, Art) Science Foreign Languages Civics/Government Economics Geography History

Note the distinction between holding appropriate certification and meeting the NCLB definition of a "highly qualified" teacher.  As you will see by reviewing the information found on the links to the left, in many cases holding appropriate certification to teach in a Florida public school is not sufficient to meet the federal definition of a "highly qualified" teacher.

Effective 7/1/06 use of the High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE)  option for meeting the federal definition of a "highly qualified" teacher is restricted to teachers in the following situations:

• New middle/secondary ESE content teachers if highly qualified in language arts, mathematics or science at the time of hire will have two extra years to document Highly Qualified (HQ) status in additional content subjects.
• Veteran teachers newly hired from another state who earned their HQ status in another state may transfer in their HQ status by submitting a verification form when relocating to Florida.
• Veteran foreign language teachers of Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and teachers of American Sign Language.
• Newly hired international exchange teachers.

Experienced elementary and ESE teachers (teaching at the elementary level or teaching at the secondary level to ESE students on alternative achievement standards) who have passed an appropriate subject area exam in another state for the subject of elementary education can document their highly qualified status by having their former school district complete a Verification of a Highly Qualified Subject Area Content Test form.
 

For teachers who must pass a Florida subject area exam to meet federal "highly qualified" teacher requirements, please go to www.fl.nesinc.com for test information, dates, and registration.