Teachers-in-Training Should Not Be Designated 'Highly Qualified'
As the long hot Washington summer lingers on and the appropriations process heats up, Congress is once again working hard to foist untrained teachers on low-income students and other disadvantaged learners. Lawmakers appear on the verge of breathing new life into legislation that defines teachers-in-training as "highly qualified" and facilitates their stealth concentration in schools and classrooms serving low-income students, English learners, minorities and students with disabilities.
Even a child can tell you that it's better to have a teacher who has successfully completed her training than one who has only just begun. Maybe that's why a recent article in The Onion hit home; it featured a kid, albeit a fictional one, lampooning the proliferation of untrained, inexperienced teachers in our nation's neediest schools. You know things are bad when a satirical newspaper is