The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE - Kentucky public-school teachers are close to achieving a new mark required by the federal government, with almost 95 percent of last year's classes taught by teachers considered "highly qualified" under the standards.

The state's first official account showed 7,901 courses that didn't meet the standard.

The requirement is part of President Bush's No Child Left Behind school accountability law.

By the end of the 2005-06 school year, all teachers who lead core academic classes - such as reading, science, math and social studies - must have a bachelor's degree, be fully state certified and prove mastery in the subject they teach through a college major, tests or by meeting state-set standards of expertise. The rule was designed to keep students from being saddled with poor teachers.

The percentage missing the bar in Jefferson County was "much lower than we had thought," said district personnel director Bill Eckels, who attributed that to stricter hiring and state licensing rules. Jefferson County's count showed 98 percent of its classes were taught by teachers considered "highly qualified" under the standards.

Kentucky has an edge in meeting the federal standard, officials said, because most teachers need majors in their subjects.

And Kentucky requires teachers to have a college degree, pass subject competency tests and serve a one-year internship, unlike some states.

"We already have a good system in place for ensuring high-quality teachers," said Brent McKim, a physics teacher and president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association.

Of the classes that didn't meet the standard last year, many involved special-education educators teaching multiple subjects.

Others were middle-school teachers who were certified for kindergarten through grade eight but never took middle school subject competency exams.

Still more were emergency-certified teachers and those who had been assigned a class outside their field of proven expertise, such as a physics teacher who took on a biology class.

Officials say that doesn't mean there are unqualified teachers heading classrooms.

"The reality is, you can be fully state certified but not highly qualified," said Phillip Rogers, an official with the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board. "Teachers (with years of experience) are saying, 'Hey, wait a minute. Now you're telling me I'm not highly qualified?' "

Those failing to meet the federal requirement will need additional training or course work, or will have to take "Praxis" exams, tests that show whether teachers have sufficient knowledge of certain subjects for the students' grade level, officials said.

Officials say they don't foresee a problem meeting the 2005-06 deadline. Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Education gave teachers in isolated rural areas an extra year, or until 2007, to show they are qualified in all their classes.

There's no direct sanction for failing to meet the requirement on time.

But the federal government has already put conditions on grant aid to several states for providing insufficient information on highly qualified teachers, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Similar action would be taken if districts ignore the law, department officials said.

Also, schools are required to report if they are not in compliance, and Title I schools, which have concentrations of low-income students, must send letters to parents when they fall out of compliance.

"That may add some public pressure," Rogers said, noting that schools are taking the requirement seriously.

Research shows teacher quality has a huge influence on student learning and "can make or break a child's academic progress for years to come," according to a recent report by The Education Trust, a Washington D.C.-based education research group.

Susan Leib, executive director of the Kentucky teacher standards board, said the law already has helped reduce the state's emergency-certified teachers by 40 percent, to about 700, from a year earlier. Districts realize most such teachers won't qualify and are avoiding such hires, she said.

Emergency-certified teachers need only a college degree and as few as six hours of teacher training a year.

Teachers themselves get no added money or reward for meeting the requirement.

Kentucky has long ranked comparatively high in teacher quality. The 2003 "Quality Counts" report, compiled by the journal Education Week, ranked it second-best in the nation for teacher quality. It cited Kentucky for being the only state to prohibit out-of-field teaching, and praised its testing and teacher preparation programs.