What is the connection between Highly Qualified under NCLB and endorsements?
While all teachers who are highly qualified will have the necessary endorsements, not all teachers who have endorsements are highly qualified. This is because the terms refer to two different things. In order to be qualified to teach a class, a teacher needs to have the required endorsements. However to be Highly Qualified, a teacher must have the endorsements and must meet one of the following requirements: Have a major in the field in which you need to be HQ or Have a major equivalency in the field (30 semester hours) or Earn National Board Certification or Pass the PRAXIS assessment for the specific endorsement or Have the required endorsement(s) and have earned 200 HOUSSE points. Please note that with the recent requirement that all new endorsements in the NCLB areas will require passage of the PRAXIS assessment, anyone granted an endorsement after 2007 will automatically be HQ.
