Californians
for Justice and ACORN File Suit For "Highly Qualified" TeachersAlthough
"highly qualified" teachers are the best hope for closing achievement gaps and
for attaining the ambitious gains in student achievement required by the federal
No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the law gives each state significant latitude
in defining "highly qualified" for teachers in its state. (For a summary and analysis
of NCLB, see the ACCESS NCLB pages).
In a lawsuit filed January 23, 2003, Californians
for Justice and California ACORN
(Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) challenge the weak definition
of "highly qualified" adopted by the California
Board of Education and the state Department
of Education in May 2002. The Petition
and Complaint cites recent reports of tens of thousands of under-qualified
teachers in California and high concentrations of those
teachers in schools educating low-income students. Plaintiffs allege that the
defendants have not complied with the California Administrative Procedure Act
(APA), which requires the administrative agencies of state government to submit
any "rule making" to a public process before adoption. Plaintiffs ask the court
to require defendants to subject the "highly qualified" definition "to the
public participation requirements of the APA." NCLB requires that all teachers
hired in Title I schools beginning in September 2003 be "highly qualified" and
that all teachers of core academic subjects be "highly qualified" after the 2005-06
school year. The NCLB definition of a "highly qualified" teacher is at 20
U.S.C. § 7801(23). Prepared January 26, 2003 | 
