Each state is required to determine that all teachers meet the NCLB qualification guidelines. According to the U.S. Department of Education, states are required to prove that all students, particularly minority and disadvantaged students, have access to highly qualified teachers. Individual states are also required to develop a pathway for educators to ensure that all teachers meet all NCLB requirements. Additionally, states are required to report plans and progress publicly as teacher goals are met. The plan presented by President Obama in 2011 retains the requirement for education, certification and competency of teachers. Additional requirements added in 2011 include opportunities for teacher collaboration and evaluation intended to include teacher development, which states must integrate into their plans.
To achieve status as highly qualified, teachers at the middle and high school level must prove competency in the subject they teach. According to the U.S. Department of Education, one way to prove competency is earning a bachelor's degree in the subject or earning course credits equivalent to majoring in the subject. Another alternative is to pass a state-developed test for subject competency. Advanced certification granted by a state or a graduate degree may also be used to prove competency. For example, Vanderbilt University's Peabody College states that Tennessee requires passage of the PRAXIS II content exams for each subject to be taught at the secondary level and the PRAXIS II "Elementary School: Content Knowledge" to teach at the kindergarten through sixth-grade levels.
Teachers who began their careers prior to the NCLB mandate may prove core subject competency under the High, Objective, Uniform State Standard of Evaluation, or HOUSSE, process, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Under the HOUSSE plan, individual states create criteria for teachers to prove core subject competence and achieve highly qualified status. Possible state requirements include teaching experience, professional development, or knowledge in the subject developed over the course of the teaching career. For example, the state of Michigan deems teachers highly qualified for completion of three years teaching with a provisional teaching certificate and a minimum of 18 semester hours in an approved graduate program. Michigan also grants HOUSSE competency with a combination of three years teaching experience and a professional development program approved by the school improvement team.
The U.S. Department of Education created flexible guidelines for highly qualified status for teachers who fall under one of three categories: rural teachers, science teachers and teachers who taught multiple subjects at the time of mandatory compliance in 2005-2006. Rural teachers who teach more than one subject because of smaller school faculty can achieve highly qualified status in one subject and be granted an additional three years to achieve the same status in a second subject. Science teachers may demonstrate status as highly qualified in a broad field of science or an individual science subject at the discretion of each state. Multi-subject teachers may use HOUSSE methods to prove competence rather than meet standard requirements in each subject taught.