The No Child Left Behind Act states every classroom must have a highly qualified teacher, but the new requirements may leave rural and urban school districts in a lurch.
The Ohio State Board of Education defined a highly qualified teacher last month. Teachers must hold a bachelor's degree, have full state certification and teach within their area of certification, said J.C. Benton, Ohio Department of Education spokesman.
Debbie Tully, professional issues coordinator for the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said the majority of teachers in Ohio already are "highly qualified," but all teachers must fit the qualifications by the 2005-06 school year.
"Anyone who's been certified or licensed since 1991 satisfies the requirement for content area," Tully said. "Many of our teachers are going to be in good shape."
But rural and urban school districts might run into problems when attempting to assign teachers to their area of certification, she said.
"Those schools characteristically have problems filling people in their content area," Tully said. "It's going to cause a lot of problems."
Athens City Schools Superintendent Carl Martin said Athens schools might not feel the effects from the highly qualified requirements soon, but it will eventually become a concern.
"I don't think it will have a great impact in the next year or so," Martin said. "I think it's going to have more of an impact down the road when it comes to trying to find teachers that meet that definition."
Ohio Education Association President Gary Allen voiced similar concerns but said the lack of funding will add to the problem.
"I think until the state or federal government deals with the issue of compensation, the rural schools are going to continue to have problems attracting highly qualified teachers in every subject area," Allen said.
Many Southeast Ohio teachers meet the highly qualified requirements, said Jane McCarley, Southeast Ohio Education Association president. She also said placing teachers in their area of certification would be difficult.
"I think that for the majority of teachers, especially in Southeast Ohio, we meet the requirements," McCarley said. "I think the only difficulty would be bringing in someone to fill a spot not in their area of expertise."
McCarley also said she felt the transition will be difficult without financial backing from the state or federal government.
"Because of pay, it's hard to attract teachers into the profession," she said. "I don't see that the money is there; it's not coming down from Columbus. We're told we have to do a lot of these things, but we don't have the tools to do them with — the tools being money."
Tully said the goal of the highly qualified teacher requirements is beneficial but will be hard to realize without support.
"We (the Ohio Federation of Teachers) want every student to have a highly qualified teacher, and we want students with the highest need to get that attention," she said. "The practical reality is the state of Ohio is going to have to come up with the money or resources to do so."
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