NCLB, ESSA, and “Highly Qualified” | deutsch29

NCLB, ESSA, and “Highly Qualified” | deutsch29:

NCLB, ESSA, and “Highly Qualified”

In this post, I compare language regarding teacher certification in two documents, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and what very likely will be the next Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) reauthorization, the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA).

I was particularly curious about the fate of the NCLB term, “highly qualified.”

Here we go:

In the 670-page No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the term “highly qualified” appears 67 times excluding its usage as it is officially defined in NCLB as follows (page 535):

HIGHLY QUALIFIED.—The term ‘highly qualified’—
(A) when used with respect to any public elementary
school or secondary school teacher teaching in a State,
means that—

(i) the teacher has obtained full State certification
as a teacher (including certification obtained through
alternative routes to certification) or passed the State teacher licensing examination, and holds a license to teach in such State, except that when used with respect to any teacher teaching in a public charter school, the term means that the teacher meets the requirements set forth in the State’s public charter school law; and
(ii) the teacher has not had certification or licensure
requirements waived on an emergency, temporary,
or provisional basis;

(B) when used with

NCLB, ESSA, and “Highly Qualified” | deutsch29:

Close Reading: Myopia as a Virtue | gadflyonthewallblog

Close Reading: Myopia as a Virtue | gadflyonthewallblog:

Close Reading: Myopia as a Virtue

You are reading a text.

Yes. Right now.

Your eyes are scanning over symbols called letters. They are joined together into words and sentences and paragraphs to make up the total of this article.

Your brain is in the process of translating these symbols into sounds, meanings, concepts. And you are reacting to those concepts.

You’re having thoughts about what you’re reading. Maybe you’re reminded of a similar article you’ve read sometime in the past. Maybe you’re feeling a thrill of excitement at such an original introduction to an education article. Or perhaps you’re rolling your eyes and wondering why the author is such a doofus.

No matter how you look at it, reading involves complex processes. A whole bunch of stuff is going on to make it happen – all of it essential.

Yet when we evaluate reading comprehension these days, we put the focus squarely on one or two of those multifarious processes. It’s reductive, reactionary, and lame. It’s a dumbing down of the cognitive and metacognitive process. But it makes things easy to grade on a standardized test.

That’s what the fad of close reading is all about. It’s an attempt to make the mysterious and complex mind something that can easily be labeled right or wrong.

For the uninitiated, close reading is the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text in which great emphasis is put on individual words, syntax, and the order in which sentences and ideas unfold.

It’s not that close reading is unimportant. After all, it’s something good readers do. But an overemphasis on this aspect leaves out so much that is even more vital. It’s like saying the only significant part of the Hershey bar is the wrapper, or the only salient part of eating the Hershey bar is chewing. However, when I unwrap my dessert, there better be chocolate inside, and after I bite into it, I’d better not forget to swallow!

But education specialists with little to no actual classroom experience are making a Close Reading: Myopia as a Virtue | gadflyonthewallblog:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/5/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

 

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