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TEA has issued a revised Highly Qualified Teacher guidance due to the fact that the U.S. Dept. of Education recently approved the revised Texas Highly Qualified Teacher Plan. Changes since the April 26, 2007, guidance document are in RED TEXT in this document . The Guidance sets out the circumstances under which teachers can use HOUSE (High Objective Uniform Standard of Evaluation), a popular option for experienced teachers to meet the "highly qualified" requirements of the federal NCLB Act.

Contents:

Background:

As a result of TCTA efforts, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has approved Texas’ revised highly qualified plan which, among other things, not only extends the deadline to meet highly qualified requirements to the end of the 2006-07 school year, but gives secondary experienced teachers who have been determined to be "highly qualified" and are subsequently reassigned out-of-field the ability to use HOUSE until the end of the 08-09 school year.

In its revised Highly Qualified Teacher guidance, TEA sets out the following circumstances in which continued use of HOUSE will be allowed:

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Uses of HOUSE through the 2006-2007 School Year:

The revised State Highly Qualified Teacher Plan allows all experienced (not new to the profession) teachers who are demonstrating subject matter competency using HOUSE procedures to complete and to document the HOUSE procedures by June 1, 2007, or the last day of student instruction of the Spring term 2007, whichever is later.

  • This option applies to teachers using HOUSE to show competency in their current teaching assignment.
  • This option also applies to teachers using HOUSE to show competency in core subject areas outside of their current teaching assignment.
  • This option must be documented by an LEA by June 1, 2007, or the last day of student instruction of the Spring term 2007, whichever is later.
  • This option is also available for current administrators who may wish to document highly qualified teacher status in the event that they wish to return to teaching in the future.

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Uses of HOUSE for the 2007-2008 School Year and Beyond:

Beginning with school year 2007-2008, HOUSE procedures will be approved only for the following reasons when implemented as described below.

1. Multi-subject secondary teachers in eligible rural schools who, if highly qualified in one subject at the time of hire, may use HOUSE to demonstrate competence in additional subjects within three years of the date of hire. (See Appendix C for more information on Rural Flexibility.)

  • This option applies to experienced and newly hired teachers in eligible LEAs as described in Appendix C of the guidance document.

2. Multi-subject special education teachers who are new to teaching special education, if highly qualified in language arts, mathematics, or science at the time of hire, may use HOUSE to demonstrate competence in additional subjects within two years of the date of hire.

  • The HOUSE option may only be implemented after completing one year of teaching experience.
  • This option applies to special education teachers who are new to the teaching profession or teaching special education for the first time.

3. Visiting international teachers, who participate in foreign teacher exchange programs officially recognized by the State Board for Educator Certification and the Texas Education Agency, may use HOUSE to demonstrate highly qualified teacher status for a period not to exceed three years.

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4. Any experienced (not new to the profession) secondary teacher who was eligible to use the HOUSE option prior to the end of the 2006-2007 school year, who has demonstrated highly qualified status in his/her teaching assignment and is subsequently asked or required to add or change teaching assignments, may use HOUSE to demonstrate highly qualified teacher status in the new assignment.

  • This option only applies to eligible secondary teachers.
  • This option is only available to experienced teachers who were eligible to implement HOUSE options during the 2006-2007 school year.
  • The teacher must already have demonstrated highly qualified status in the teaching assignment for which the teacher was hired to teach and subsequently have been asked or required to change assignments.
  • This option is not available for teachers hired by an LEA to teach subject areas in which the teacher is not highly qualified at time of hire.
  • This option is not available for teachers who request a change in assignment.
  • This use of HOUSE will be phased out at the end of the 2008-2009 school year.

(For this purpose, “end of the 2008-2009 school year” is defined as the last day of the 2008-2009 school year calendar, as defined by the LEA, which may include the summer school calendar if offered as part of the 2008-2009 school year. )

5. Any experienced secondary teacher teaching a foreign language (Language Other Than English) in which the state does not currently have both written and oral teacher certification exams may use HOUSE to demonstrate highly qualified teacher status.

  • This option only applies to eligible secondary foreign language teachers.
  • This use of HOUSE will be phased out as additional written and oral certification exams are developed and implemented. As applicable certification exams are implemented for a specific foreign language, teachers of that foreign language will no longer be able to use this HOUSE option.

6. Any experienced secondary teacher may continue to use HOUSE to demonstrate subject matter competency for mathematics or science for documenting highly qualified teacher status.

  • This option only applies to secondary teachers who teach mathematics or science courses.
  • This option is to allow LEAs and teachers to prepare for the new state high school graduation requirements for four mathematics and four science credits.
  • This HOUSE option will phase out at the end of the 2012-2013 school year.

(For this purpose, “end of the 2012-2013 school year” is defined as the last day of the 2012-2013 school year calendar, as defined by the LEA, which may include the summer school calendar if offered as part of the 2012-2013 school year.)

NOTE: All references to the uses of HOUSE options are governed by the USDE approved State Plan.

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In the Revised Guidance, TEA also set out its intentions regarding the portability and continued status of highly qualified teachers as follows:

Continuity: It is the agency's intent that any teacher previously determined to be highly qualified using HOUSE procedures or any other method for determining subject matter competency for highly qualified that was allowable at the time the highly qualified determination was made, will continue to be considered highly qualified in the same core academic subject area.

However, at any time there is a change in the teacher's assignment, the LEA must ensure that the teacher meets the highly qualified requirements for the new assignment using subject matter competency options that are allowable at the time the highly qualified determination is verified.

Portability: While the determination of a teacher's highly qualified status is an LEA or charter school decision, the agency's intent is that such determinations are to be portable between all LEAs and charter schools within the state. It is the responsibility of the teacher to provide a hiring LEA with documentation of highly qualified status in teaching assignments as verified by a previous employing school district or charter school.

Note: Such highly qualified teacher determinations made by charter schools may not be portable to a public school district due to the differing certification requirement in highly qualified for charter school teachers than public school teachers.

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Finally, in the Revised Guidance, TEA sets out the consequences for schools not reaching 100% highly qualified teacher status:

Beginning in school year 2007 - 2008, for LEAs that have not reached 100% highly qualified and also have not met AYP for three consecutive years, the TEA will implement the following corrective actions required by Section 2141 Statute.

1. LEAs will be required to implement an accountability agreement with TEA and jointly develop a professional development program;

2. TEA will require professional development to meet the needs of campuses;

3. TEA will provide Title II, Part A funds directly to campuses to meet identified needs; and

4. TEA will prohibit LEAs from hiring additional paraprofessional FTE's.

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Campus consequences for not reaching 100% campus level participation in the LEA consequences above, campuses will be required to implement the following specific consequences:

1. State 1 School Improvement Program (SIP) Campuses have a TEA-required administrative mentor as part of the state's school support program to schools identified for needing improvement. These mentors are required to review the campus' highly qualified continuous improvement plan and provide any necessary technical assistance in revising the plan as needed.

2. State 2 and above Title 1 SIP campuses will be required to submit their campus highly qualified teacher continuous improvement plan to TEA for review in order to receive a Notice of Grant Award (NOGA) for the Title 1 school improvement funding. TEA will conduct a review of the plans and provide technical assistance to the campuses and LEAs as needed.

Technical Assistance: The Regional ESC's will provide technical assistance to all LEAs nd campuses that have not reported 100% highly qualified teachers to provide assistance with the focused data analysis and improvement planning processes. Technical assistance will be prioritized to those campuses and LEAs also not meeting AYP.

Clarification regarding methods coursework

Methods courses may be used for elementary HOUSE options; however, methods courses are not common for secondary teachers and would, therefore, not be counted for HOUSE points.

Clarification regarding what fields are considered “closely related” for purposes of HOUSE

What fields are considered "closely related" for purposes of HOUSE?

The following table demonstrates which fields may be considered "closely related" when determining a secondary teacher's status under HOUSE. For foreign languages, there are no "closely related" fields. This list is not comprehensive: LEAs may consider other fields as "closely related" as appropriate, but must maintain clear documentation of what is used to determine "highly qualified" status.

English

Reading

Speech

Journalism

Reading/Language Arts

English

Speech

Journalism

History

Georgraphy

Government

Economics

Political Science

Economics

Government

History

Georgraphy

Political Science

Geography

History Economics

Government

Political Science

Civics and Government

History

Economics

Geography

Political Science

Science

Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Biology

Earth Science

Life/Earth Science

Physics

Chemistry

Any Science course accepted by SBOE for graduation credit.

Arts

Art

Music

Theatre Arts

Dance

Mathematics

Engineering

Statistics

Accounting

Any Math course accepted by SBOE for graduation credit

Foreign Languages (Languages other than English)

None - For purposes of HOUSE, one foreign language is not considered "closely related" to another; therefore, experience teaching French, for example, cannot be counted toward experience teaching German.

Web posted: 10/25/07