[ OUR OPINION ]
Change in standards
for nation’s teachers
should be temporaryEDUCATION Secretary Rod Paige's impolitic labeling of the nation's largest teachers union as a "terrorist organization" last month triggered a firestorm the Bush administration didn't need as it confronted increasing opposition to the No Child Left Behind law.
THE ISSUE
The Bush administration has relaxed rules for "highly qualified" teachers of core subjects in public schools.
Whether Paige's decision this week to relax qualification requirements for teachers is an election-year attempt to quiet the room, the move threatens to undermine a key provision of the landmark act, one that should not be tinkered with.
The administration would do better by providing states with funds and training programs teachers need to upgrade their skills, as promised when the law was passed.
More than a dozen states have been loudly complaining that rigid standards for testing public school children coupled with inadequate federal funding have made reaching compliance with the law nearly impossible. The administration at first stubbornly resisted any waivers, but facing criticism from legislators, educators, congressional candidates from its own party and the prospect of a tough re-election campaign, it is now stressing a new flexibility.
In recent months, the administration has loosened rules on testing for special-education and non-English-speaking children, modifications that prevent entire schools from being judged as failing because a smaller group of students with particular needs don't progress at the same rate as others.
The administration also may change a rule that schools reach a 95 percent participation rate in statewide tests to avoid a "needs improvement" designation. Many of Hawaii's public high schools failed to meet this requirement in the last year's tests, placing them in the deficient category and distorting whatever real progress they may have achieved.
While these adjustments are "common sense solutions " -- to use Paige's words -- to legitimate concerns, revising the requirement that teachers of core academic subjects, such as English, reading, math and sciences, be "highly qualified" goes too far.
The problem is that many teachers in rural areas often instruct multiple subjects and the law demanded that they have bachelor's degrees or equivalent certification in each subject by the end of the 2005-2006 school year. The change allows new teachers three years to show they are highly qualified and gives current teachers until March 2007 to do so.
However, teacher turnover is high in rural schools like those on the Leeward Coast and on the neighbor islands. A new teacher who leaves a school after two years could be replaced by another new teacher who, in turn, moves on in a couple of years, consigning students to a string of unqualified educators.
Teachers should be given time to bring their credentials up to standards, but the rule change should apply only for the short-term and should be fully restored. Qualified teachers are the most important component for good education and the law's goals cannot be achieved without them.
