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Highly Qualified: The next steps
Despite making progress toward the goal of
100 percent highly qualified teachers, most states were not able
to achieve full proficiency by the appointed deadline. As a
result, the federal government has given states deemed to be
making a “good faith” effort until the end of the 2006-07 school
year to reach that goal. South Dakota was one of the states
identified as making a “good faith” effort.
Under these new provisions, each state was
required to submit a revised plan detailing actions that the
state and local education agencies (LEAs) will take to reach the
highly qualified goal by the end of 2006-07. South Dakota’s
detailed plan includes a requirement for districts to submit a
Plan for Highly Qualified Teachers to the state. The plan
must indicate how the district will move any non-highly
qualified teachers to an HQ status during the upcoming school
year. These plans will be due to the Department of Education by
Nov. 15, which allows districts to review staffing based on the
annual Personnel Record Form submission.
To support local districts in their
efforts, the Department of Education will provide technical
assistance. A template has been developed for districts to use
in creating the newly required Plan for Highly Qualified
Teachers. A series of meetings will be held via the Dakota
Digital Network to review requirements and discuss concerns. The
live database available via the Personnel Record Form also
allows districts to easily check the highly qualified status of
their teachers.
Educators should note that South Dakota’s
HOUSSE (High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation) rules for reaching highly qualified status will be phased
out during the 2006-07 school year. The federal government
previously allowed states to have HOUSSE rules in place that
provided some flexibility for teachers already in the field.
Once HOUSSE rules are phased out, teachers will have just two
options for reaching highly qualified status: passing a content
test or a major in the field of study.
Those teachers who previously obtained
highly qualified status via the HOUSSE rules will remain HQ as
long as they continue teaching the same subjects. Any teacher
currently pursuing HQ status via HOUSSE rules will need to
finish that work this school year.
Superintendents should expect a mailing on this issue early in
the school year. The mailing will outline, in detail, these new
requirements.
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