Teach Effectively!

Special education teachers who met Oregon HOUSSE standards for being “highly qualified” may no longer considered HQ under new guidelines, according to a Paris Achen of the Southern Oregon Mail Tribune. Oregon’s original standards gave too much credit for experience, so the state board charged with managing such matters changed the criteria.

Hundreds of middle school teachers and high school special-education teachers whom the state approved as highly qualified in the last two years may not meet the standards for the federal designation.

Following a directive by the federal government, the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission of Oregon recently changed the formula for determining whether middle school teachers and high school special education teachers are highly qualified.

The changes will affect teachers in multiple local education agencies (LEAs). The state commission is depending on the LEAs to determine who is affected and to notify those teachers.

Link to the news article.