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When Congress reauthorized the federal Individual with Disabilities Education Act in 2004, the Act included new flexibility for certain special education teachers teaching core academic subjects to meet the federal NCLB Act's highly qualified requirements. The flexibility options allow secondary special education teachers who teach core academic subjects on an elementary level exclusively to children who are assessed against alternate achievement standards to be considered highly qualified if they meet highly qualified requirements for elementary teachers. The highly qualified requirements for elementary teachers are (a) passing the appropriate elementary certification test, or (b) the additional option for experienced teachers of meeting elementary HOUSE (High Objective Uniform Standard of Evaluation).

However, because Texas did not have "an alternative assessment" approved by the federal government for use at that time, Texas special education teachers could not use this flexibility. In a September 20, 2007 letter, TEA announced that with the implementation of the TAKS-Alt during the 2007-2008 school year, an alternative assessment was now in place, allowing special education teachers who are exclusively teaching students taking the TAKS-Alt test to now take advantage of the flexibility provided by IDEA. For more details see below:

Implementation of Flexibility for Secondary Special Education Teachers Exclusively Teaching Students with Alternate Achievement Standards

TAKS–Alt is an assessment designed for students with significant cognitive disabilities to meet the federal requirements mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act. According to federal regulations, all students will be assessed on grade-level curriculum which includes those students receiving special education services. Students with significant cognitive disabilities may be assessed with alternate standards using an assessment that is linked to the grade-level curriculum through prerequisite skills.

One percent of the tested population can count as proficient for Adequate Yearly Progress calculations beginning in 2007-2008. The state of Texas can no longer administer Locally Determined Alternate Assessments for these students. TAKS–Alt should be considered the state assessment given to this population of students. Standards for TAKS–Alt are set by the state based on the Spring 2007 field test data.

With the implementation of the TAKS-Alt exams during the 2007-2008 school year, special education teachers who teach only students who will be assessed on the TAKS-Alt exams now have additional flexibility in determining highly qualified teacher status. A teacher may now use any of the methods previously available or the following flexibility provided under the highly qualified teacher provisions in the reauthorized IDEA statute that was unavailable until the state developed the alternative assessments.

  • If the instruction provided is at the elementary (PK-6) level, the teacher may meet the highly qualified teacher requirements for an elementary school teacher.

OR

  • If the instruction provided is above the elementary level, at grades 7-12, the teacher may meet highly qualified teacher requirements by demonstrating the subject matter knowledge appropriate to the level of instruction being provided, as determined by the Agency, needed to effectively teach to those standards. For this purpose, the Agency has defined “appropriate level of instruction” as the Secondary Special Education HOUSE option. Since this use of Special Education HOUSE for secondary teachers is the state’s definition, any eligible special education teacher that meets the HOUSE option may be documented as highly qualified.

Web posted: 09/27/07