SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
DIVISION OF TEACHER QUALITY
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001[1]
A.
Applicability to Teachers: All teachers
hired after the first day of the 2002–03 school year to teach core academic
subjects in Title I school-wide programs or Title I targeted assistance
programs must be highly qualified. In addition, all teachers hired after the
first day of the 2002–03 school year for the purpose of reducing class size,
whose salaries are paid through the No
Child Left Behind Act’s Improving Teacher Quality Grant funds and who teach
core academic subjects, must be highly qualified. Finally, all teachers in all
schools who teach core academic subjects must be highly qualified by the end of
the 2005–06 school year, and all schools must show annual progress towards
having all core academic subject teachers highly qualified by the end of the
2005–06 school year.
Teachers who instruct in the areas of physical education, health education, career and technology education, or driver education are not required to meet the highly qualified requirement. Teachers who do not provide the primary instruction and do not assign a grade in a core academic subject are not required to meet the highly qualified requirement; such teachers may include English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) teachers, gifted and talented teachers, and exceptional education teachers in resource, inclusion, and itinerant settings.[2]
Substitute teachers are not part of
South Carolina’s definition of a teacher and do not have to meet the
requirements of being highly qualified. However, if substitutes teach in a
particular classroom for more than four weeks in a Title I school-wide or
targeted assistance program, the school must notify parents that the students
are being taught by individuals who are not highly qualified.
B. Core Academic Subjects: The core academic subjects are: English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics, government, economics, history, geography, and the arts.[3]
C. Standards for Being a Highly Qualified Teacher: A highly qualified teacher must 1) have earned at least a bachelor’s degree, 2) demonstrate content knowledge in each core content area he or she teaches, and 3) have full state certification with no waivers of any requirements.
D. Applicability to Schools. All schools that deliver content in the core academic areas, including alternative schools, special schools, South Carolina Governor’s Schools, and charter schools, are subject to the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. Thus, all core academic teachers in such schools must be highly qualified in the content area(s) that they teach.
E. Demonstrating Content Knowledge: A veteran teacher may demonstrate content knowledge by achieving one of the following[4]:
1. a major in the content areas(s) taught (not normally applicable for early childhood, elementary, or exceptional children education teachers) by obtaining either:
a) thirty or more semester hours earned in content area coursework, twenty-one of which were earned at the junior or senior level or above, or
b) twenty-four or more semester hours earned in content area coursework at the graduate level; or
2. a passing score on the content area examination(s) in the content area(s) which the teacher teaches (teachers who were certified in South Carolina prior to 1977 may not have taken a content area exam); or
3. an advanced degree in the content area(s) the teacher teaches (not normally applicable for early childhood, elementary, or exceptional children education teachers); or