N.D., Utah Dispute Federal Findings on Teacher Quality

Teacher-licensing officials in two states plan to fight recent findings by the U.S. Department of Education that most of their elementary teachers are not “highly qualified” under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The findings could mean that veteran teachers in those states—North Dakota and Utah—and by implication, elsewhere, would have to offer evidence beyond their teaching licenses that they meet the federal standard. Many have two or more decades of classroom experience.

“We are working with the Utah attorney general on a response,” said Joan D. Patterson, the coordinator of educator licensing in the Utah education department. “I believe we are going simply to say, ‘No, we are compliant; … we have gone through the...