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TCTA's letter to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (a similar letter was sent to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn):
July 5, 2006
The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison
Attn. Beto Cardenas
United States Senate
Room 284, Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Re: Extension of deadline for “highly qualified” under NCLB; revised state plans
Dear Senator Hutchison:
We are contacting you on behalf of our 50,000 Texas teacher members, to let you know that we are concerned about a requirement coming from the U.S. Department of Education requiring states to describe how they will phase out an option for experienced teachers to meet the “highly qualified” requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
On May 12, 2006, the USDE sent Texas a letter announcing its finding that Texas had made substantial progress toward meeting the “highly qualified” requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act by the end of the 2005-06 school year. http://www.ed.gov/programs/teacherqual/hqtltr/2.doc The USDE is requesting Texas to submit a revised plan by July 7, 2006 that details the actions the state and local districts will take to reach “highly qualified” by the end of the 2006-07 school year, essentially providing the possibility of a one-year extension on the deadline. The USDE is requiring as part of the revised plan that states detail how they plan to “complete the HOUSSE process” for experienced teachers and how they will limit the use of HOUSSE for teachers hired after the 06-07 school year and beyond except for teachers who teach multiple secondary subjects in small rural schools and are highly qualified in at least one core academic subject at the time of hire, new special education teachers who teach multiple core academic subjects, and who are highly qualified in either mathematics, language arts, or science at the time they are hired; and teachers who come to the United States from other countries to teach on a temporary basis.
HOUSSE (High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation) is an option for “experienced” teachers to use to demonstrate subject matter competency under the NCLB “highly qualified” requirements. In Texas, it allows these teachers to show that they have 24 points worth of years of experience, college hours and professional development in the subject taught. The other two options are: passing the relevant certification test, and, at the secondary level, having 24 hours in the subject taught.
We have a major concern about the USDE asking Texas to phase out HOUSSE. This is because HOUSSE is a crucial avenue for experienced teachers to use to demonstrate competency in situations in which they are assigned out-of-field. In Texas, the out-of- field assignment rate has remained at about 20% for the last five years, a statistic that is reflective of the pressing teacher shortage we are experiencing. Due to employment laws in Texas, Texas teachers have little or no control over their teaching assignments; in fact, most Texas teacher contracts contain language specifying that teachers can be assigned as necessary. Eliminating the HOUSSE option for an experienced teacher who is assigned to something for which he/she is not certified, something over which the teacher has little or no control, seems extreme, given the fact that the only other option for these teacher to demonstrate competency would be to pass the relevant certification test or have 24 college semester hours at the secondary level. Certification tests in Texas are only offered four times per year; college courses take a semester to complete. Both of these options take time, something that teachers in this situation will not have when they are typically notified of their assignment at the beginning of the school year, or in some cases, during the school year. Allowing these teachers to be able to demonstrate competency via HOUSSE would enable these teachers to count the benefit of their teaching experience, college hours, and professional development in the subject taught to demonstrate competency. Without this, despite the goal of the NCLB to have highly qualified teachers in every core academic subject, eliminating HOUSSE for these teachers would potentially have the perverse effect of eliminating a job for a certified teacher.
Additionally, we are concerned about the process the USDE is using in order to require states to phase out HOUSSE. As far as we are aware, HOUSSE is a statutorily set option that is available for experienced teachers to demonstrate competency. We are not aware of any requirement to phase out HOUSSE in the NCLB. Accordingly, it would appear that the USDE’s requirement that states show how they will phase out HOUSSE should go through the appropriate rulemaking process.
Accordingly, we ask that you urge the USDE to reconsider requiring Texas to eliminate HOUSSE as an option for experienced teachers.
Additionally, we would ask you to urge the USDE to afford paraprofessionals the same one-year extension on the NCLB deadline to meet NCLB paraprofessional requirements that the USDE is giving teachers to meet “highly qualified.” Paraprofessionals are a crucial source of instructional support for teachers, and are often among the least paid educational employees. Accordingly, they are struggling to meet NCLB requirements and should be afforded the same consideration in extending their timeline as is being given to teachers.
We thank you most kindly for consideration of these issues.
Sincerely,
...
TCTA's letter to USDE:
July 3, 2006
Dr. Henry Johnson
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
FOB 6
Washington, DC 20202
Re: Extension of deadline for “highly qualified”; revised state plans
Dear Dr. Johnson:
We are contacting you on behalf of our 50,000 Texas teacher members, to request that you reconsider one issue and consider another one in the context of extending state deadlines for meeting “highly qualified” requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act.
As you are aware, Texas was one of many states that received a letter from your office on May 12, 2006, announcing the U.S. Department of Education’s findings that Texas had made substantial progress toward meeting the “highly qualified” requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act by the end of the 2005-06 school year. The USDE is requesting Texas to submit a revised plan by July 7 that details the actions the state and local districts will take to reach “highly qualified” by the end of the 2006-07 school year, essentially providing the possibility of a one-year extension on the deadline. The USDE is requiring as part of the revised plan that states detail how they plan to “complete the HOUSSE process” for experienced teachers and how they will limit the use of HOUSSE for teachers hired after the 06-07 school year and beyond (with certain exceptions).
We have a major concern about the USDE asking Texas to phase out HOUSSE. This is because HOUSSE is a crucial avenue for experienced teachers to use to demonstrate competency in situations in which they are assigned out-of-field. In Texas, the out-of- field assignment rate has remained at about 20% for the last five years, a statistic that is reflective of the pressing teacher shortage we are experiencing. Texas teachers have little or no control over their teaching assignments; in fact, most Texas teacher contracts contain language specifying that teachers can be assigned as necessary. Eliminating the HOUSSE option for an experienced teacher who is assigned to something for which he/she is not certified, something over which the teacher has little or no control, seems extreme, given the fact that the only other option for these teacher to demonstrate competency would be to pass the relevant certification test or have 24 college semester hours at the secondary level. Certification tests in Texas are only offered four times per year; college courses take a semester to complete. Both of these options take time, something that teachers in this situation will not have when they are typically notified of their assignment at the beginning of the school year, or in some cases, during the school year. Allowing these teachers to be able to demonstrate competency via HOUSSE would enable these teachers to count the benefit of their teaching experience, college hours, and professional development in the subject taught to demonstrate competency. Without this, despite the goal of the NCLB to have highly qualified teachers in every core academic subject, eliminating HOUSSE for these teachers would potentially have the perverse effect of eliminating a job for a certified teacher.
Additionally, we are concerned about the process the USDE is using in order to require states to phase out HOUSSE. As far as we are aware, HOUSSE is a statutorily set option that is available for experienced teachers to demonstrate competency. We are not aware of any requirement to phase out HOUSSE in the NCLB. Accordingly, it would appear that the USDE’s requirement that states show how they will phase out HOUSSE should go through the appropriate rulemaking process.
Accordingly, we ask that you reconsider requiring Texas to eliminate HOUSSE as an option for experienced teachers.
The second issue that we ask you to consider is to afford paraprofessionals the same one-year extension on the NCLB deadline to meet NCLB paraprofessional requirements that you are giving teachers to meet “highly qualified.” Paraprofessionals are a crucial source of instructional support for teachers, and are often among the least paid educational employees. Accordingly, they are struggling to meet NCLB requirements and should be afforded the same consideration in extending their timeline as is being given to teachers.
We thank you most kindly for consideration of these issues.
Sincerely,
...
