Highly Qualified Teachers

Section 1119 of The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) focuses on improving teacher quality at the local level. To achieve this goal, the act requires all teachers teaching core subject academic areas to meet specific competency and educational requirements. Teachers who meet these requirements are considered “highly qualified.”

General Information

Teachers are required to be highly qualified if they are the Teacher of Record providing direct instruction to students in any core academic subject area, including English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages (languages other than English), civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography.

Highly qualified teachers must:

Hold at least a bachelor’s degree;

Be fully certified to teach in Texas; and

Demonstrate competency in their core academic subject area