NCLB Presents Middle School Complications

'Highly Qualified' Rule Vexes Teachers

The news this past spring shook public confidence in Pennsylvania’s teachers: Almost two out of three Philadelphia middle school math teachers had failed an exam to gauge their mastery of the subject, their peers in the rest of the state hadn’t done very well either, and neither the state education department nor any other district intended to make public the pass rates of teacher test-takers.

Pennsylvania at the time had seemingly decided to make veteran teachers show that they, just like new teachers, had satisfied the “highly qualified” requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act by having college majors in the subjects they taught or passing a state-set test.

Two months later, though, the state school board opened the door for an alternative route for some classroom veterans, most notably middle school teachers. State officials say that the plan had been in the works for months, and that the test results didn’t bring any new...