You don't have to beg. I believe you. :o) In Michigan you have to be
certified unless there are places that will give accreditation to
schools that do not meet state standards. I guess we never applied to
any of those, so I was unaware of them. Having served on private school
accreditation teams, I was basing my comments on that. My apologies if
I misspoke. However, I was talking about my area. Not every private
school in the country.

My use of the terminology "Highly qualified" was as defined by NCLB

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the No
Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, which is a reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). This federal law
required all teachers of core academic subjects be “highly qualified” by
the end of the 2005-2006 school year.

To be highly qualified a teacher must meet three requirements:

— Holds at least a bachelor’s degree,
— Has full state teacher certification*, and
— Has demonstrated competence in each core academic subject in which the
teacher instructs.

(*This means having a valid Michigan initial or advanced teaching
certificate and assigned to teach within the validity/designation on the
certificate.)

To be highly qualified in a subject area you have to pass a test in that
area for grades 6-12. Elementary teachers take a general test in all
subject areas and are certified grades K-5. Early Childhood and Special
Ed also have specific tests to take. I do not recall the names of those
tests.

I imagine each state has their own requirement to meet NCLBs definition
of highly qualified teachers. The private schools in my area, to my
knowledge, meet those requirements or are working on them with a
provisional certificate.

The problem I had with that post was the implication that private
schools grab warm bodies to teach in their schools. While that might be
true in some cases, I hardly believe that is the majority of them.

On 6/27/08, Sara wrote:
> I must beg to differ. My school is fully accredited by Mid States
> and several other organizations and it is NOT a requirement that
> teachers be certified. And few of us here in our middle school or
> upper school are certified.
>
> But I'd be interested to know what is 'highly qualified'? I know
> what 'certified' means and know most of here are not but what
> is 'highly qualified' and how is that determined or earned?
>
>
>>
>> To quote: "What a joke. Who wrote that is obviously not someone who
>> knows much." Good grief!!! Where did you get your oinformation?!?!
>> In my area the teachers are all considered highly qualified by the
>> state. We follow state GLCEs, and out students score high on the
>> MEAP. the schools can not be accredited if the teachers are not all
>> certified and highly qualified in their subject area. I am not
>> saying that there are no schools with uncertified teachers, but then
>> they are not accredited. Find out if the school is accredited. If
>> it is, the teachers are certified and qualified for the subjects
>> they teach.
>>
>> On 6/26/08, qualified teachers in private school LOL wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Private schools do not have to have a qualified teacher. They
>>> can hire anybody at all. So who they hire will vary widely
>>> according to the school. The math teachers especially at a
>>> private school will have no math background so you had better
>>> check up on your child's teacher's credentials.
>>>
>>> A private school can legally hire anyone with a pulse and they
>>> often do. The pastor's wife, the director's best friend's
>>> brother...the person who will teach for half the salary of a
>>> public school.
>>>
>>> Yes, private schools pay less no more to the teachers. How do
>>> you get math and science people to work for $18,000 a year?

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