The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is set to expire this year and the debate about the merits and pitfalls of the legislation continues vigorously. In February, the bi-partisan NCLB Commission, sponsored chiefly by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, released a 222-page report, Beyond NCLB: Fulfilling the Promise to Our Nation's Children, containing 75 recommendations.

The recommendations fall into four categories: teacher and principal effectiveness, improved accountability, effective school improvement and improved student options, and improvements to student standards and assessments. Over the past few years, unions representing both licensed and classified employees have brought numerous NCLB proposals to the table. If Congress accepts the commission's recommendations, these proposals will probably increase.

The commission's chairman said that it had heard loudly from teachers, school district officials, and state leaders that the NCLB's Highly Qualified Teacher requirements did not achieve their goals of real quality in classrooms. In response, the commission recommended a new standard, Highly Qualified Effective Teacher (HQET), which would require systems for measuring learning gains of a teacher's students through a new methodology. Quantifying learning would include examining three years of student data and conducting evaluations or peer reviews. Under this model, student achievement can count for no less than 50 percent of the determination. Under the commission's model, HQET teachers would be those teachers who fall in the top three quartiles of producing learning gains and receive positive evaluations.

The addition of evaluations and peer reviews in the HQET model, if adopted, is likely to lead to a host of new proposals on evaluation processes and procedures, including observations. The commission report also calls for allowing principals in Title I schools to refuse to transfer a teacher into their school if the teacher has not achieved HQET status. Again, if this model is adopted, anticipate language proposals about vacancy and transfer.

Another potential connection to collective bargaining relates to professional development funds. The commission report includes "guaranteed, quality professional development for teachers who need it most" and a requirement that professional development funding be focused on activities proven to strengthen teachers' ability to provide better instruction.

The National Education Association has already issued a statement opposing the HQET model, saying "it is impossible for all teachers to ever meet this requirement" (emphasis added). The NEA notes that the current standard "doesn't compare teachers against each other." NEA included concerns in its statement about funding for customized professional development for teachers not meeting HQET status.

It is unclear which aspects of the commission report Congress will adopt; however, it is fairly certain that if any of the standard's recommendations are accepted, there will be more pressure at the bargaining table to define and meet the new requirements.