Ohio: In late February, Ohio joined the growing list of states which have published a report on how to improve teacher quality at the state level (for reports from Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and Arizona, see the February 28, 2003 TQB. This report, produced by the Governor's Commission on Teaching Success, makes fifteen recommendations. The problem isn't in the recommendations, some of which are stronger than others. While blue ribbon panels churn out these recommendations, they ought to recognize that they all bear remarkable semblance to every other state's recommendations, but meanwhile the real work remains to be done. We'd be happy to see a state just pick one or two and do them right. Ohio's perfectly reasonable recommendations call for:

• adopting clear standards for teachers and principals;
• rethinking the school leadership to allow principals more time to take on the role of instructional leaders,
• developing an improved statewide data system to help districts recruit and track teachers,
• implementing a plan to recruit teachers to hard-to-staff schools and shortage subject areas,
• creating a framework for districts to use in evaluating teachers that requires the use of some measure of student achievement,
• strengthening induction and professional development,
and
• making teacher and principal preparation programs more rigorous and more "reality-based."

Alaska: Here's a problem that Congress might not have thought about when drafting No Child Left Behind. With 100 of Alaska's 506 schools employing three or fewer teachers, the state is having some difficulty complying with NCLB. NCLB requires that all teachers be "highly qualified" at every grade level, meaning that every teacher must possess a bachelor's in the subject, have passed a subject matter test, or demonstrate proficiency through some other state approved criteria in each of the core subjects they teach. But in Alaska and elsewhere, teachers sometimes have to wear a lot of hats. Alaska's sparsely staffed schools are facing the challenge of finding "super teachers" who are competent to teach multiple disciplines and grade levels.

Alaska's $41 million of federal Title I money may be at risk. In an effort to comply with the act, state officials have sought to loosen standards for what constitutes a qualified teacher in extremely small school districts, perhaps by ruling that an academic minor is sufficient for the designation a modification that thus far has been deemed unacceptable by the Department of Education.

For a more detailed explanation of the "highly qualified" requirements of NCLB, see the December 6, 2002 TQB.