PSS: No contingency plan yet for non-HQT in 2011

The Public School System has yet to come up with a contingency plan for July 2011, when the U.S. Department of Education will no longer allow non-highly qualified teachers inside classrooms.

Education Commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan admitted this to Saipan Tribune in an interview, saying that PSS still has high hopes that its remaining non-HQTs will complete and meet the requirements before the deadline.

Teachers who have yet to be certified as highly qualified comprise about 34 percent of public school instructors.

PSS, Sablan said, is pulling its resources together to help these non-HQTs comply with the requirements through institutes that will be offered this summer.

“Our goal is to aid them—through summer institutes—so they can be successful in taking the Praxis tests,” Sablan said.

There are three PSS requirements for a teacher to be deemed highly qualified: a degree, valid teaching certificates, and passing both Praxis 1 and 2.

Last school year, 130 non-HQTs were given a one-year contract only, on the condition that they show good faith in complying with the requirements.

When asked if these same non-HQTs would be extended for another year at PSS, the commissioner said no decision has been made yet, citing the important “role” played by school principals in making the decision.

“We invested so much in our teachers. Whatever decision we will make for non-HQTs would be the recommendations of their school principals,” she said.

In reviewing the renewal contracts of non-HQTs, Sablan said she was impressed with the “action plan” mapped out by each teacher to meet the requirements.

“They are very serious in fulfilling this obligation before the expiration of their contract,” she said.

During the Education Board’s last meeting, board member Tanya King had asked about a “contingency plan” for non-HQTs comes 2011.

“Are we going to eliminate them? What’s next after the deadline for those who are not able to pass [Praxis]?” she asked the commissioner, adding that it is important to lay down “Plan A and B” before the end of 2011.

Sablan said the termination or elimination of teachers is something PSS does not want to see but this will ultimately be up to the board.

She conceded, though, that “policy must be enforced by PSS.”

Education Board vice chair Herman T. Guerrero told fellow board members that “changes” or “special consideration” for non-HQTs may carries a stigma for PSS.

“We must be very careful…because it may carry a stigma for those who already passed,” he said, adding that if the same number of teachers are not able to comply with the standards in 2011, perhaps “education is not their calling.”

Guerrero pointed out that if CNMI-PSS strictly follows the No Child Left Behind Act as intended, some of the teachers would be kicked out of the system.

“No ifs, no buts,” he said.

At present, 67 percent of PSS teachers are already deemed highly qualified.