Agenda - 03-16-2004-6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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meet AYP, and that can send an unnecessary alarm, which leads to confusion, through a School of Excellence's community. Ultimately, this can cause teachers and other personnel to leave a school or school system that fails to make AYP and worsen our state's teacher shortage, particularly in parts of the state that have high growth and very diverse student populations. RECOMMENDATION: "Achievement Levels" of Adequate Yearly Progress should be established to distinguish between schools that miss one or two targets and those that miss all or multiple targets.. In connection with these proposed "Achievement Levels," only the schools missing numerous subgroup targets should face sanctions under No Child Left Behind. 2. Personnel Qualifications ISSUE 2.1: NCLB requires all teachers to be highly qualified in the content area in which they are assigned to teach. While simplistic in theory, this requirement is problematic in practice, since teachers must either attain certification in multiple subject areas or receive alternative credit for additional subject areas through a process that is tedious and difficult for school administrators to utilize efficiently. Special education teachers are most affected by this requirement, since they must teach multiple subjects to students with learning disabilities. The requirement may ultimately cause North Carolina's short supply of teachers, particularly those with expertise in special education, to dwindle further, causing additional hardships for our school systems and our students. RECOMMENDATION: Teachers should be given the opportunity to show their expertise in the areas in which they will be teaching or already have been teaching beyond their major, and the process for awarding credit for demonstrated skills should be simplified.. ISSUE 2.2: Requiring North Carolina teachers to increase their credit hours from 18 to 24 in one content area in order to gain "highly qualified" status under NCLB may be a costly mandate that will exacerbate North Carolina's teacher shortage, which already has reached a crisis stage. RECOMMENDATION: The U.S. Department of Education should issue guidelines offering direction on what credit hours may count toward the "highly qualified" requirements for teachers and allow some flexibility in credit hour requirements to honor existing state ficensum and reciprocity policies. ISSUE 2.3: Staff development of teachers and paraprofessionals will become a focal point for meeting Adequate Yearly Progress goals and maximizing student successes in the classroom. School administrators will devote considerable attention and resources toward staff development issues and numerous delivery options. RECOMMENDATION: The U.S. Department of Education, in implementing the professional development requirements of NCLB, should allow adequate time for school personnel to comply. In addition, our Congress should provide adequate funding to allow school systems to make improvements in this area. 3. Funding ISSUE: The legislation authorizing No Child Left Behind set adequate federal funding levels for its successful implementation by the states; however, the federal budget has fallen short of those funding levels in subsequent years. This funding shortage is made more difficult by a provision in the law requiring a certain percentage of allocated funds to be set aside for remediation and "school choice" issues in connection with placement under Title I school improvement status. RECOMMENDTION: The U.S. Congress should appropriate additional federal funds to meet the funding levels established by the authorizing legislation of No Child Left Behind. Additionally, a thorough analysis should be undertaken to determine the state and local funding requirements to fully implement the law. For more information, please contact: Katherine W Joyce, NCASA's Assistant Executive Director Officer 919-828-1426, Cell 919-906-2571, Email kjoyce@ncasa.net