What the "new flexibility" means for Montana

Message from Superintendent Linda McCulloch, March 19, 2004:

This week the US Department of Education declared "new
flexibility" for complying with the highly qualified teacher
requirements of the "No Child Left Behind Act." The most significant aspect of the announcement was that it appears the department is finally starting to listen to the many concerns states have been raising on the implementation of the act.

In September, I submitted to the department Montana's definition for determining the "highly qualified status" for Montana teachers. Our definition is simple and requires a minimum of additional burden on teachers and school districts.

It is this: "Montana teachers meet the definition of highly qualified
teacher if they are licensed and endorsed in the areas in which they
teach."

The department's new flexibility moves towards our definition in some significant ways.

Three changes
The department announced three changes.

1. The most important change is they will now recognize science teachers properly licensed by the states with "broad field science" endorsements to be considered highly qualified. This will alleviate the need for science teachers to acquire multiple science degrees or take additional "rigorous tests" for each science course they teach.

Unfortunately, the department is not yet applying the same flexibility of recognizing the validity of "broad field" endorsements for social studies teachers. There are some legal complications with the law on this matter, but surely if broad field endorsements are valid for science teachers, they also are valid for social studies teachers.

2. The department also is granting an additional year for teachers in
schools that are defined as rural under the REAP legislation to become highly qualified. This provision is not particularly relevant to
Montana because our definition of highly qualified eliminates the need for 99% of our teachers to meet additional requirements outside those required by Montana for educator license renewal.

3. The last new flexibility provision gives the states more room to
demonstrate their teacher licensure procedures for multi-subject
teachers to meet the goal of providing a highly qualified teacher for
those students. Again, it is the position of Montana - my position -
that our state established educator licensure process meets those
federal requirements.

We will continue to provide the department with additional information on how Montana is meeting the goal of providing highly qualified teachers in every classroom.

Progress is being made but we still have a long way to go. Major
changes still remain on the issues of "highly qualified teachers," the
assessment of special education students, applications of sanctions, and how we more fairly determine "adequately yearly progress."

Again, thank you for your support on this journey down the NCLB trail. I am confident that more changes are coming and we will prevail; we must, for our Montana students.

Don't hesitate to contact me with your concerns and good ideas. Thanks for all you do for our Montana school kids!