Effective Measures

Just when you were getting used to the idea of a Highly Qualified Teacher requirement, a high-profile panel comes along and says what we really need is a Highly Qualified Effective Teacher requirement. A much-anticipated report by the Commission on No Child Left Behind, a bipartisan panel convened by the Aspen Institute to advise Congress on refurbishing NCLB, recommends that states be required to set up systems to track teachers’ effectiveness based on student achievement data over time, as well as principal and peer evaluations. Under the plan, if a teacher does not achieve “HQET status” after five years (including three years of specialized professional development), his or her principal would be required to notify the parents of students in the teacher’s classes. Teachers who fail to attain HQET status after seven years would no longer be allowed to teach in a school receiving Title I funds. ''The Commission believes that it is time to raise the bar and allow all teachers to demonstrate their effectiveness in the classroom rather than just their qualifications for entering it,’' the report says.