Highly Qualified Manual

“Highly qualified” is a specific term defined by No Child Left Behind. The law outlines a list of minimum requirements related to content knowledge and teaching skills that a highly qualified teacher is expected to meet. The law requires public school elementary and secondary teachers to meet their state’s definition of highly qualified teacher for each core academic subject they teach. According to NCLB, core subjects are English, reading or language arts, math, science, history, civics and government, geography, economics, the arts and foreign language. Special Education teachers and teachers of English Language Learners must be highly qualified if they teach core academic subjects to their students. In general, under NCLB a highly qualified teacher must have: a) a bachelor’s degree, b) full state certification, as defined by the state and c) demonstrated competency, as defined by the state, in each core academic subject he or she teaches.