Here's something I learned recently about yet another negative consequence of Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.
In California (and probably in every state), there are two types of credentials a K-12 teacher can get: single-subject (for teaching one subject, usually at the high school level), and multiple-subject (mostly for elementary school teachers). Bush's No Child Left Behind Act requires that each classroom have a "highly qualified" teacher. I'm currently earning a single subject credential to teach social studies so I will be "highly qualified" to teach that subject. I've already taken tons of coursework in history, geography, political science, etc. to meet these qualifications.
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I'm now student-teaching at a middle school. In middle schools, each teacher usually handles a single subject. Many of the teachers, though, were hired with multiple-subject credentials. They aren't considered "highly qualified" to teach any one subject. So how are administrators responding to the new requirements of No Child Left Behind? That's right. Instead of having them teach one class for which they are not "highly qualified," administrators are getting each teacher to teach two different classes for which they are not qualified. That way they are teaching "multiple subjects."
"So we can screw the kids up in two subjects," is the joke I've heard from more than one middle school teacher.
A teacher I know does both history and English. She holds a degree in neither subject. Her background is in art. But her multiple-subject credential qualifies her to teach both, so long as she doesn't teach only one.
Another middle school teacher I know teaches only 6th grade history. But because of her multiple-subject credential, administration is looking to replace one of her history classes with a class in some other subject to comply with NCLB.
This seems to be making a bad situation worse. If a teacher is entrusted with one subject for which she is not highly qualified, she at least can spend her evenings boning up on that subject. If she is given two subjects for which she is not qualified, she can spend only half as much time learning each subject.
When I first heard about NCLB, I was for it. But the more experience I have with its results, the more I see it to be a disaster.