Pursuant to the United States Department of Education, all Local Education Agencies (LEAs) are to submit a plan to the state agency, Arkansas Department of Education (ADE), stating how the local schools and districts will obtain the national and state goal to insure that 100% of all core academic classes are taught by highly qualified teachers.
The form for Arkansas, which has been designed and approved by the federal government, is attached. On Friday, December 15, 2006, the Department will be hosting a compressed interactive videoconference (CIV) to assist all principals, district HQT designees and Superintendents with the completion of the LEA plans for both schools and districts. The Directors and Coordinators of the Educational Services Cooperatives have agreed to assist all schools/districts with this process. Please register for the teleconference with the local cooperative or contact Belinda Kittrell at Belinda.Kittrell@arkansas.gov.
Pages one and two of the plan are to completed from total District data compiled from the Cycle 2 reports during the last two school years. Please notice on item #1 the 'Total Number of Teachers in Core Academic Areas' are the teachers defined by No Child Left Behind teaching in the following areas: Mathematics, English/Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Reading, Art, Music and Foreign Languages. (Special Education teachers and Alternative Learning Environment teachers who are teachers of record in these areas should also be included.) The second table of item #1 is regarding the number of core academic classes (sections); i.e. a first grade class would count as (1) class but a 7th grade English teacher may have five sections and thus would be counted as (5) classes, etc. No conference periods or non-core academic classes that these teachers teach are to be included in this count. Responses to items #2 and #3 should be concise.
Page three of the plan is to be completed by each individual school building. On the first portion, the individual schools are to compute the percent of core academic classes taught by highly qualified teachers in the school. This is similar to the District data in part two of item #1. The individual teachers of core academic areas not highly qualified are then to be identified with the additional information requested. The plans for these teachers to become highly qualified are to be included. (A copy of the individual teacher plan for becoming highly qualified is attached.)
The completed LEA Plan for Highly Qualified Teachers, with both district and individual school information, should be submitted to Frank Wimer, Standards Assurance Unit Leader with the Arkansas Department of Education by the close of business on Wednesday, January 31, 2007.