OVERVIEW
The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation requires MCPS to ensure that all teachers of core academic subjects meet the requirements to be designated “highly qualified.” Highly qualified teacher refers to a teacher who holds full state certification and has passed the state licensing examinations, or is an experienced teacher with an advanced professional certificate in the core academic subject he/she is teaching, or has an academic major in the core academic subject he/ she is teaching, or has qualified through the High, Objective, Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) rubric. The HOUSSE rubric remains an option for special education teachers until FY 2014. For purposes of NCLB reporting, a class is considered as taught by a highly qualified teacher if the class is in the subject area for which the teacher has certification and the highly qualified designation. Core academic subjects are art, music, dance, drama/theatre, early childhood, elementary (including immersion), English, foreign language, mathematics, reading and language arts, science, and social studies.
More Information: