Policy 3.44

Verification of Experienced Teachers’ Highly Qualified Status Under NCLB

1. Purpose.-- The School Board is committed to having highly qualified teachers in the District's classrooms pursuant to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).

1. This Policy is intended to supplement State Board of Education Rule and to implement the Florida DOE’s High, Objective, Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) Plan for highly qualified teacher requirements within 20 U.S.C. § 7801(23) (codifying § 9101 of NCLB), pursuant to the Florida DOE’s memoranda on Highly Qualified Teachers (available online at http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-102), incorporated herein by reference.

2. The Board recognizes that the U.S. Department of Education has authorized using the High, Objective, Uniform, State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) to determine a teacher to be "highly qualified" under NCLB other than by certification or subject testing. Under the HOUSSE plan, experienced Florida certificated educatorscan verify core content-areacompetency and knowledge as defined by NCLB standards to satisfy the highly qualified teacher criteria by June 30, 2006 or as otherwise amended by federal or state law.

3. Teachers who meet HOUSSE criteria will not have to take additional courses or take specific Florida subject area exams to be deemed "Highly Qualified" by NCLB standards, and will no longer be considered out-of-field in the core content area being verified, State Board of Education Rule 6A-1.0503.

2. Features.-- The HOUSSE plan uses multiple items that verifycompetency in the corecontent areato meet the requirements of the NCLB "highly qualified" designation.

1. HOUSSE points are allowed for successful teaching experience in the core content areas, satisfactory classroom observations and performance evaluations in the core content areas, college level courses in the core content areas, approved professional development in the core content areas, appropriate professional activities related to teaching the core content areas,and student achievement learning gains for teachers of English/Language Arts and Mathematics in Grades 4-10.

2. The Florida HOUSSEplan requires 100 points in this rubric for each core content area being verified; and form PBSD 2133, used by this District to implement the plan, is incorporated by reference herein.

3. The District School Board is not required to notify parents of the students taught by teachers who are deemed highly qualified via the HOUSSE plan that the teacher does not have certification in the core content area.

3. Applicability

1. The HOUSSE plan is applicable to, but not limited to, the following types of teaching assignments:

1. teachers certified in an ESE area and who teach one or more core content areas;

2. teachers of foreign languages (especially where no subject area test is available);

3. teachers of academic core content courses;

4. teachersin alternative school settings, such as Juvenile Justice and/or Educational Alternatives; and

5. teachers hired as Exchange Teachers.

2. The HOUSSE plan cannot be used to satisfy ESOL or Reading content area highly qualified status.

4. Procedures

1. It is the responsibility of the teachers to provide any official documentation to their respective Principal/Director for HOUSSE points that the Palm Beach County School District does not have in its electronic files.

2. Principals will electronically sign off on all approved forms in the District’s HOUSSE System and forward appropriate officialdocumentation to the District’s HOUSSE Administrator for finalsignoff.

3. Final approveddocumentation relating to these procedures will be scanned into the teachers’ personnel records.

5. Noncompliance.-- Principals will receive a list of teachers who are not in compliance with the NCLB "Highly Qualified" requirements. Teachers who do not meet the "Highly Qualified" status by the deadline will receive a letter notifying them of suchfrom the Division of Human Resources; the letters will be sent to school centers for distribution.