Data Quality in Action

1. Data Quality in Action Highly Qualified Teachers

2. Objectives • Describe how to highly qualify a teacher for an assignment where one is required. • Identify ways to troubleshoot data quality errors when highly qualifying teachers.

3. Highly Qualified Teachers The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 2001 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 outline qualifications for teachers.

4. Highly Qualified Teachers • HQT requirements apply to all teachers who provide instruction in the core academic subjects. • English, Language Arts, Reading • Mathematics, Science • Foreign (World) Languages • Civics/Government, Economics, History, Geography • Visual Arts, Music, Dance, Theatre • Elementary Curriculum

5. Highly Qualified Teachers • A highly qualified teacher must • Have at least a bachelor’s degree, and • Hold full state certification, and • Demonstrate subject matter knowledge

6. Highly Qualified Teachers • Learn more at the Title IIA web site • Guidelines for highly qualifying teachers, including special education and alternative learning environments • Accountability plans • Guidance about highly qualified paraeducators http://www.k12.wa.us/TitleIIA/HighlyQualifiedTeachers.aspx

7. The HQT Tool Districts annually report the status of their teachers using an EDS application: the highly qualified teacher (HQT) data collection tool.

8. The HQT Tool All of the schools in a district are listed.

9. The HQT Tool • This information is pulled from directory information in EDS. This directory data is the foundation of all other data connections. • Check building names and grade levels.

10. The HQT Tool Be sure that the CEDARS term dates are entered and match what is reported to CEDARS.

11. The HQT Tool Information about individual teachers is drawn from various files and databases.

12. The HQT Tool Staff are reported on the S-275 or through CEDARS.

13. The HQT Tool Only staff who do not have students should be identified in the tool by the S-275. Correct errors in the Student Schedule File and Staff Schedule File in CEDARS to resolve the issue.

14. The HQT Tool Be sure that teachers are listed only once per building. All information (name, certificate number…) needs to match across all of the district’s reports. The S-275 is due October 1 for allocation purposes. Districts can resubmit the report as often as they want in order to address data quality errors. It will not affect their allocation.

15. The HQT Tool Be sure courses match their content areas. If they are not aligned, the teacher will be identified as not highly qualified. This correction must be made at the district level.

16. The HQT Tool If there is a mismatch, correct it in CEDARS. Reporting what’s wrong in the action box does not fix the data quality issue.

17. The HQT Tool These data quality issues place a district’s federal funds at risk.

18. The HQT Tool Information displayed in this area is gathered from eCertand data entered by the district into the HQT Tool.

19. The HQT Tool High, Objective, Uniform State Standards of Evaluation (HOUSSE) forms must be dated prior to the first day of the school term. Otherwise, the teacher will be reported as not highly qualified.

20. Data Quality Errors

21. Data Quality Errors

22. Reports Use the Reports Tab to generate and download data from the HQT Tool.

23. Review • Describe how to highly qualify a teacher for an assignment where one is required. • Identify ways to troubleshoot data quality errors when highly qualifying teachers.

24. Want more? Visit http://www.k12.wa.us/CEDARS/dataquality/

25. Discussion • There are multiple ways in which data quality affects the process of highly qualifying teachers. How can errors be reduced? • Suppose a teacher in your list was showing as not highly-qualified in the HQT Tool, yet you had paper documentation proving otherwise. How would you troubleshoot the error?