Nearly all of N.J. public school teachers are "highly qualified"
Posted Wednesday, August 19, 2009 from The Star-Ledger
Nearly all of N.J. public school teachers are 'highly qualified'
by Jeanette Rundquist /The Star-LedgerWednesday August 19, 2009, 6:09 PM
When New Jersey's 1.39 million public school students enter theirclassrooms next month, almost all will find highly-qualified teacherswaiting for them.
Nearly all of the state's 88,000 teachers meet the federaldefinition of "highly qualified," according to data released by thestate Department of Education today.
Newark's First Avenue Elementary Shcool teacher Lauren Torsiello passes out books to 6th grade students in June.The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires allpublic school teachers be properly certified and have documentedexpertise in the subjects they teach. New Jersey has always done wellunder the federal rule, as the state's own certification requirementshave similar demands.
"It tells us the vast majority of our teachers hold the credentialswe expect them to hold, " said state Education Commissioner LucilleDavy, who announced the results of the teacher survey, which was thesixth annual, at a monthly meeting of the state Board of Education.
"Today we can proudly say we are mere fractions of one percentagepoint away from an across-the-board HQT rate of 100 percent," she said."That being said, there are other things that go into the determinationof teacher effectiveness and qualify. That, I think, becomes the nextlevel."
The survey of nearly 88,000 teachers in 10 content areas showed that99.7 percent of New Jersey teachers are qualified in the subjects theyteach. Only about 263 failed to qualify.
The data also shows that economically disadvantaged schools arecatching up when it comes to teacher quality. The percentage of classestaught by highly qualified teachers in high-poverty schools is 99.1percent; in 2004-05, poor schools were a full 10 percentage pointsbehind their more well-off counterparts.
In some local districts, however, school officials said that whilethe highly qualified designation "sounds good," it may not mean much.
In Linden, where school superintendent Rocco Tomazic said 100percent of his teachers are highly qualified, he said most licensedteachers are automatically "highly qualified."
"If I have a license to teach a class, why do I need an additional requirement?"he asked.
Tomazic said one of the biggest issues for districts is high schoolspecial education, where teachers have to be qualified both in specialed and in the particular subject, such as math, that they are teaching.He said has had to move staff around to reach the mark.
"We are mindful to find people who meet the qualification, but I'mvery thin. If I lose a teacher or two, I may have difficulty replacingthem," he said. "I feel good that we're at 100 percent, but I know howhard it is and how fragile it is."
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