Scott DeFalco is a first-year teacher in the rural community of Auburn, where he teaches independent study to special education students at Maidu High School. He earned his teaching credential as a specialist for students with mild to moderate disabilities.
As both an independent studies and special ed teacher, he teaches all of the core subject areas. And under NCLB, he must be "highly qualified" in all of them, which means holding a credential or degree in every subject or passing a competency test.
Title I schools like Maidu are under the gun to get their teachers to comply with NCLB regulations or face sanctions.
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Would Maidu High be better off with a teacher who's NCLB compliant but doesn't have the combination of skills Scott DeFalco (shown here with Trevor Vick) brings to the table?
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"Under NCLB, I can be considered highly qualified in science because I have an undergraduate degree in chemistry. I am highly qualified in math, because I have enough credits from numerous undergraduate classes," says DeFalco. "I can teach reading because I passed RICA (Reading Instructors Competency Assessment) and had graduate-level courses in that. I'm looking at either competency tests or additional coursework in English and history."
While there was hope that the reauthorization of the IDEA might give special education teachers a break from being NCLB compliant in all core subjects they teach, this has not happened, at least not yet. But there is a silver lining for DeFalco: Rural teachers have been given an extra year — until 2006-07 — to comply. There are approximately 5,000 rural districts in the country (or a third of all school districts nationwide) that could benefit from this provision. It means that teachers at rural schools — such as Maidu High School — have a little more time.
Meanwhile, De Falco is pondering whether he should leave Maidu for a regular high school, where he could teach just one subject. But replacing him at Maidu, a rural independent studies campus, would be difficult. "I am the only special education teacher at this site, so they would probably have to go to a general education teacher who doesn't have my training in special ed."
Trevor Sanders, a second-year teacher in the rural coastal community of Point Arena, was hired to teach math even though his credential is in social studies. After reading about the "highly qualified teacher" (HQT) component of NCLB, he says he was waiting for someone from the federal government to knock on his door in the middle of the night and take away his credential. "It panicked me," he admits.
Sanders, a new teacher, does not have enough experience to qualify for the High, Objective, Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) procedure, where teachers can receive HQT credit for time spent teaching, mentoring and participating in professional development. With the closest community college two hours away, he is looking into taking online courses to prepare him for CSET.
Sanders is pleased to learn that teachers in rural areas now have more time to reach HQT status. And he's no longer worried about hearing a knock in the middle of the night.
