Report Faults Ed. Dept., States on Teacher-Quality Rule

By July 7, all states had to submit revised plans to the federal government detailing what they plan to do during the coming school year to meet the teacher-quality requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. Their plans were to include specific steps they will take to ensure that poor and minority students are not taught by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers at higher rates than other children.

But a study released July 6 by the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, a watchdog group based in Washington, cautions that most states so far have made only minimal progress in addressing the teacher-quality provisions, particularly the teacher-equity requirements, which the group says have been poorly enforced by the federal government.

The report, “Days of Reckoning: Are States and the Federal Government Up to the Challenge of Ensuring a Qualified Teacher for Every Student?,” is based on an analysis of site reviews the Department of Education conducted in 40 states, starting in mid-2004, to determine whether states were complying with...