Another Attack on Teacher Quality

On Tuesday , the Aspen Institute's NCLB Commission issued its report proposing changes to the so-called No Child Left Behind Act. The Commission, co-chaired by former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson and former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, has spent the past year gathering information about NCLB and preparing a detailed series of recommendations for changes to the law.

The Commission would add on top of the current requirements a new Highly Qualified Effective Teacher” (HQET) requirement. This new mandate would apply to all reading, math, and science teachers. These teachers would be evaluated in large part based on student learning gains as measured by standardized test scores. Another part of the rating would be based on a principal’s evaluation. It is only a matter of time before this could be imposed on all teachers. Teachers in each state would be ranked and those in the top 75 percent each year would be considered a "highly qualified effective teacher.” This guarantees that 25% of all teachers would fail the mandate.

Enough is enough. How many more hoops are teachers going to have to jump through? We need you to email your Congressional Representatives and let them know this is a total lack of respect for our profession and that you don't want them to support it. Go to OEA's web page at http://www.okea.org/ to send your message. You may also access the NEA web page at http://www.nea.org/lac/esea/hqetposition.html#5reasons.