{"id":2678,"date":"2011-08-12T11:22:25","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T15:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/?p=2678"},"modified":"2016-11-16T20:41:16","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T01:41:16","slug":"in-their-own-words-equal-access-to-highly-qualified-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/in-their-own-words-equal-access-to-highly-qualified-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"In Their Own Words – Equal Access to \u201cHighly Qualified\u201d Teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each day this week, Amicus will feature an editorial post written by one of CRCL\u2019s new General Board members.\u00a0 Today\u2019s post discusses the question of who should be considered a \u201chighly qualified teacher” and the repercussions of different approaches.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Teach For America (TFA) has built its movement upon the rhetoric of \u201ccivil rights.\u201d Wendy Kopp promotes her book One Day All Children <\/em>as\u00a0 \u201ca blueprint for the new civil rights movement.\u201d[1]<\/a> I agree with the portrayal of educational inequity as a civil rights issue. Just choose your statistic \u2013 numerous studies show how educational achievement maps onto race and socioeconomic status (such as the finding that \u201cby the end of high school, black and Hispanic students’ reading and mathematics skills are roughly the same as those of white students in the eighth grade.\u201d)[2]<\/a> This inequity undercuts the provision in every state constitution that grants every child a right to education.<\/p>\n

All this is to say, TFA <\/em>has good reason to frame its appeal to graduating seniors as a civil rights call. I was so persuaded that I joined the movement, and taught for two years as a sixth grade teacher in the Phoenix Corps. I have respect for many of TFA\u2019s efforts, and great admiration for many of its teachers.<\/p>\n

However, I was dismayed to learn that TFA and their political allies are re-writing the law that guarantees every child equal access to a \u201chighly qualified teacher\u201d in the classroom. Recent decisions in the ninth circuit and the related repercussions in Washington D.C. generate serious questions: Who has a right to a highly, qualified teacher? What is the best policy to make this right a reality for all students?<\/p>\n

The \u201chighly qualified\u201d question arises out of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act <\/em>(NCLB). <\/em>Congress passed NCLB with the explicit purpose of narrowing the achievement gap in schools. They wrote in numerous provisions to ensure that states, districts, and schools would ultimately realize the promise of a fully prepared teacher for all students, which they defined unambiguously as a teacher who \u201chas obtained full State certification.\u201d (20 U.S.C. \u00a77801(23)(A)). In its regulation, the United States Department of Education (ED) re-wrote this provision to state that the highly qualified label applies to anyone \u201cparticipating in<\/em>\u201d alternative certification programs and merely making \u201cprogress toward <\/em>full certification as prescribed by the State\u201d (34 C.F.R. \u00a7 200.56(a)(2)(ii)) (emphases added). ED\u2019s revision has had the greatest impact on low income, high-minority schools. In Renee v. Duncan<\/em> the Plaintiffs challenged the regulation and supported their argument with that fact that \u201cnearly a quarter of California\u2019s 10,000 interns teach in schools whose students are 98-100% minority; as such, these minority students are five times more likely to have intern teachers than students in schools with the lowest proportion of minority students.\u201d[3]<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>In contrast, less than 2% teach in the decile of schools with the lowest minority concentration.[4]<\/a> In July 2010, the Ninth circuit ruled that the department\u2019s regulation impermissibly expanded the definition of who was \u201chighly qualified.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

This decision threatened the expansion of teacher-intern programs, and such programs have reacted with force by lobbying congress and submitting amicus briefs to the Ninth Circuit to reconsider the decision. TFA has been at the forefront of this resistance. The result was a last-minute insertion into a confusingly labeled piece of legislation: the \u201cContinuing Appropriations and Surface Transportation Extensions Act, 2011\u201d passed on December 22nd<\/sup>. Buried in the middle of the act, Section 163 temporarily adopts the ED code\u2019s definition of a \u201chighly qualified teacher,\u201d effective from the date of enactment through the end of the 2012-2013 academic year.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the continuing resolution, the Ninth Circuit is reconsidering its decision as well as its directions on remand to the lower court. This past June, they heard arguments from both parties on how to amend their decision. The court has not yet issued its opinion.<\/p>\n

This series of events raises the question of how<\/em> policymakers should reform the education system in years to come. I understand that TFA wants to expand its program. But filling our struggling schools with intern-teachers is not a long-term solution. We should expect our teachers to be trained and prepared, and calling an \u201cintern\u201d teacher a \u201chighly qualified\u201d teacher covers up the problem. It denies parents access to information that they could use to demand more experienced teachers. It denies useful data for reformers to demand a better dispersal of effective teachers across schools. TFA has advanced itself using the argument that a \u201ccertified\u201d teacher isn\u2019t necessarily better than an intern teacher. IF <\/em>that is true \u2013 and I\u2019m not saying it is \u2013 then the answer lies in reforming how we train teachers and evaluate them once they\u2019re in the classroom. The answer is not to totally do away with certification requirements, or to hide the way we place the least-qualified teachers with the neediest students.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/a> \u201cThe Founder\u2019s Book,\u201d Teach For America Website<\/em> accessed on July 31, 2011 at <http:\/\/www.teachforamerica.org\/newsroom\/founders_book.htm><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2]<\/a> \u201cThe Academic Achievement Gap: Facts and Figures,\u201d Teachers College, Columbia University Website <\/em>(June 9, 2005) accessed on July 31, 2011 at <http:\/\/www.tc.columbia.edu\/news\/article.htm?id=5183><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[3]<\/a> Brief of Petitioners-Appellants at 3, Renee v. Duncan <\/em>573 F.3d 903 (2008) No. 08-16661 accessed on July 31, 2011 from <http:\/\/www.publicadvocates.org\/sites\/default\/files\/library\/plaintiffs_opening_brief_renee_aob_case_no_08-16661.pdf<\/a>><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[4]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 24.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[5]<\/a> Renee v. Duncan<\/em>, 623 F.3d 787, 796 (9th Cir. 2010)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Educational inequity is a civil rights issue. Just choose your statistic \u2013 numerous studies show how educational achievement maps onto race and socioeconomic status (such as the finding that \u201cby the end of high school, black and Hispanic students’ reading and mathematics skills are roughly the same as those of white students in the eighth grade.\u201d) This inequity undercuts the provision in every state constitution that grants every child a right to education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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