In yet another litigious development involving NCLB, the public interest group Californians for Justice is suing the state of California, claiming it has no grounds to declare teachers highly qualified who are teaching under the state's Individualized Internship Certificate. These teachers are en route to certification, and have either completed the necessary subject coursework or passed a test, but are not enrolled in a standard district or university-based alternate route program.

The root of this complaint sure seems political, since these California interns appear to have the credentials mandated for HQT status, and there's no evidence that they constitute a substandard class of teacher. The source of the group's discontent seems to be, not that these teachers are worse than regularly certified teachers or that they don't meet the legal definition of HQT, but that they are more likely to be found in poor and high-minority schools. That seems in line with the grassroots group's goal of "working to empower communities that have been pushed to the margins of the political process."