CEA’s successful advocacy efforts are easing the concerns of Connecticut teachers who were worried about the possible harmful ramifications of an inaccurate State Department of Education (SDE) ruling late last fall. The ruling would have phased out the High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) provision in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act.

CEA’s intervention in recent months to correct the situation in Connecticut followed NEA’s successful challenge in 2006 of the U.S. Department of Education’s attempt to phase out HOUSSE. As a result of these challenges, the provision will remain in force for veteran Connecticut teachers.

State Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan issued a March 3 memo in which he rescinded his late 2007 ruling. He told school superintendents in the March memo that “HOUSSE remains an acceptable means of determining which of your veteran teachers may be designated as high qualified for reporting purposes.”

Last fall’s SDE ruling would have affected how “highly qualified” veteran teachers would have been identified for the 2008-09 school year. Teachers who are not new to the profession can opt to use HOUSSE, along with the district’s evaluation process, as an alternative to having an academic major or passing a test in each of the subjects they teach to meet NCLB's highly qualified teacher requirement.

CEA opposed SDE’s 2007 ruling that encouraged school districts to discontinue HOUSSE because it raised several concerns. The ruling was not only a potential violation of state regulations but it also was an inaccurate interpretation of an NCLB requirement, since nothing in the current authorization of NCLB addresses discontinuing HOUSSE as a method to evaluate veteran teachers.  

CEA Executive Director John Yrchik told McQuillan that the 2007 decision was “essentially creating new state certification regulations without proper statutory procedures.” Yrchik also said eliminating HOUSSE would have unilaterally diminished the value of certain certificates and adversely affected teachers’ property rights to their teaching certificates by preventing them from using the HOUSSE process.

Under NCLB, each state must submit a plan to the U.S. Department of Education outlining the steps to ensure that 100 percent of its teachers meet the highly qualified requirement. The law defines highly qualified teachers as those who have fulfilled the state's certification and licensure requirements and can demonstrate they know each subject they teach.

NEA strongly opposed the U.S. Department of Education’s decision to eliminate the HOUSSE provision. It successfully argued that eliminating HOUSSE would violate NCLB's statutory requirements, contradicts previous guidance from the department and that the proposed change had not been subject to any public comment or review.