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EDUCATION NEWS
What ESSA means for “’highly qualified” teacher rules in NJ
Do you hold the previously issued “N-8 elementary” or
“teacher of the handicapped” New Jersey instructional teaching
license? Then you should pay special attention to the changes
in federal law authorized by the Every Student Succeeds Act
(ESSA).
The act, which amended and reauthorized the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA), eliminated the overarching
federal “Highly Qualified Teacher” (HQT) criteria and restored
state certification requirements as the authority for which subjects
and grades teachers can teach.
The federal law had effectively narrowed the scope of several
teaching certificates by requiring subject-specific majors, degrees,
certificates, or other proof of subject knowledge in order
to teach core subjects in departmentalized middle grades or in
high school.
In New Jersey, this most affected:
• Elementary teachers holding nursery through grade eight
(N-8) elementary certificate endorsements who were teaching
one or two subjects in middle grades.
• “Teacher of the Handicapped” (TOH) endorsement holders,
whose teaching license had authorized
This development doesn’t
mean any teacher should throw
out his or her “highly qualified”
paperwork. In fact, retaining
that material is still important.
them to teach any subject to special
education students at any grade level.
• “Teacher of Blind or Partially Sighted”
and “Teacher of Deaf or Hard of Hearing”
endorsement holders who had
been authorized to teach all subjects
to students with those disabilities at all
grade levels.
As a result of ESSA, the New Jersey Department
of Education (NJDOE) issued an
advisory to school districts on March 29
and again on April 5 alerting them that, effective immediately,
the “Highly Qualified Teacher” (HQT) provision was eliminated.
Consequently, individuals can be assigned to teach any grade or
subject that their teaching certificate authorizes them to teach.
This again opens up the assignment possibilities for those
holding N-8 (with limits for teaching preschool outlined below),
TOH, and Teachers of Blind or Deaf instructional certificate endorsements.
This does not affect assignment of individuals who
hold the K-6 elementary or the Teacher of Student with Disabilities
endorsements.
As a result of state regulations passed in 2006, N-8 certified
teachers whose endorsements were issued by March 1, 2008,
must have the equivalent of two academic years of full-time experience
teaching three- and four-year-olds under their certificates
in order to teach preschool in a public school or Department of
Children and Families facility. The district or DCF facility must
retain documentation of the teacher’s preschool teaching experience.
Retain your HQT paperwork
This development doesn’t mean any teacher should throw out
his or her “highly qualified” paperwork. In fact, retaining that
material is still important.
The NJDOE is urging school districts to continue to use the
HQT matrix in assigning educators “to ensure that contentqualified
teachers are in place to support student achievement.”
So while the HQT is no longer required, school districts still have
the right to assign teaching staff members
within the scope of each individual’s certificates,
including grade level and—if in
departmentalized middle school settings
or high school settings in the case of the
teacher of the handicapped—the content
he or she should teach.
NJEA advises every educator to make
sure that he or she retains a copy of all
“highly qualified” documentation with
other important documents related to his
or her employment and career.
NJEA and the NJDOE are still reviewing
the amended federal law to determine how changes in the
“highly qualified paraprofessional” requirements will affect
employees in New Jersey who are covered under that provision.
NJEA advises all affected members holding such positions in
public school classrooms and libraries also to retain proof of
their “highly qualified” status.
NEA President, Sen. Deignan honored by Education Law Center
NEA President Lily Eskelsen García delivered the keynote
address at the Education Law Center’s Seventh Annual
Education Justice Lecture at the Edward J. Bloustein School of
Planning and Public Policy in New Brunswick. She and Sen.
Patrick J. Deignan Jr. were later honored at a reception where
Eskelsen García received the ELC’s Education Justice Award and
Deignan received the Marilyn Morheuser Award.
NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer participated in a panel
discussion at the event, along with Deignan and Mary Bennett,
a retired principal of Newark’s Malcolm X. Shabazz High School
and an education leader and activist.
The event, which was co-sponsored by NJEA and ETS, focused
on issues related to educational equity and opportunity.
In her keynote, Eskelsen García, a sixth-grade teacher in Utah
who began her career in education as a “lunch lady,” discussed
the dire state of school funding in Utah and the positive impact
that the state school employees’ union has had advocating for
funding equity and educational opportunities for students.
Eskelsen García touted the importance of union membership,
engagement and advocacy. Despite challenging political and
economic circumstances, education has seen successes, which
Eskelsen García credits to the power of collective action. She
cited the achievements of NJEA and the Education Law Center
in advocating for funding, resources and opportunities for New
Jersey’s children.
“Because of warriors—whether they are lobbyists or lawyers
or third-grade teachers or lunch ladies—we have had successes
advocating for other people’s children.”
JUNE 2016 13