Starting in 2010, the Public School System can no longer hire classroom teachers who are not highly qualified.
A highly qualified teacher must have a degree, a valid certification and has passed the Praxis tests.
PSS has 494 classroom teachers of whom 68 percent, or 338, are highly qualified, according to the school system’s human resources office.
BOE Vice Chairman Herman T. Guerrero, during a recent special meeting, asked Education Commissioner Rita A. Sablan to look into the hiring of government employees — how it can be implemented and how will it impact the school system’s policies and regulations.
PSS teachers who are not yet HQTs by 2010 will be considered “substitutes.”
This school year, 130 non-HQTs were given a one-year extension of their contracts.
They are still required to be fully compliant with the HQT requirement, which was first implemented in 2005.
