Highly Qualified Teacher

Highly Qualified Teachers - Dept. of Ed (PDF)    
Clarifying the “Highly Qualified Teacher” Definition - MEA (Doc)
Michigan Highly Qualified Teacher Report
(Adobe PDF document)
Michigan Highly Qualified Teachers Worksheet
(Adobe PDF document)
Classes That Can Be Taught By Holders of Various Endorsements

Are you a "highly qualified" teacher? Click here to find out

What the law says

States must:

• apply evaluation standards uniformly to all teachers in the same subject and grade level throughout the state;
• publish an annual report disclosing the professional qualifications of teachers, the percent working with emergency or provisional credentials, and the percent of classes in the state not taught by ''highly qualified'' teachers.

By the end of the 2005-06 school year, all teachers in core subject areas must meet the following definitions of "highly qualified" for all teachers, for new elementary teachers, for new middle or secondary teachers, for existing elementary, middle, and secondary teachers, and for paraprofessionals.

All teachers must:

• be fully licensed or certified by the state;
• not have had any certification or licensure requirements waived on an emergency, temporary, or provisional basis.

New elementary teachers must:

• have at least a bachelor’s degree;
• pass a state test demonstrating subject knowledge and teaching skills in reading, writing, mathematics, and other areas of any basic elementary school curriculum.

New middle or secondary teachers must:

• have at least a bachelor’s degree;
• demonstrate competency in each of the academic subjects taught; or
• complete an academic major or coursework equivalent to a major, or a graduate degree in each of the academic areas in which the teacher teaches; or
• advanced certification.

Existing elementary, middle, and secondary teachers must:

• have at least a bachelor’s degree; and
• meet the requirements for new teachers described above; or
• demonstrate competency in all subjects taught; (A uniform state evaluation standard is to be used to judge competency.
• be evaluated under a standard that must provide objective information about the teacher‘s knowledge in the subject taught and can consider, but not use as a primary criterion, time spent teaching the subject.