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States may be demanding high standards of their newly certified teachers, but they鈥檙e doing a poor job of requiring their veteran teachers to get the training necessary to meet the 鈥渉ighly qualified鈥� provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to a new assessment of states鈥� progress.

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While there are a few exceptions, most states are either exempting veteran teachers from any coursework or asking them to complete activities that have little connection to the subjects they teach, according to the study, released last month by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington-based organization that advocates the elimination of bureaucratic obstacles that keep talented people from teaching.

鈥淢ost states neither share the urgency nor the single-minded focus of the U.S. Congress in seeking to address the low academic standards required of American teachers, arguably the least rigorous among all developed nations,鈥� the report says, adding that many states don鈥檛 have the 鈥減olitical stomach for remedying the impact of substandard, expired certification regulations.鈥�

鈥楽earching the Attic鈥�

The report, which follows the group鈥檚 first study, released last spring, grades states鈥� plans for addressing the HOUSSE鈥攐r 鈥渉igh objective uniform state standard of evaluation鈥濃�攑rovisions of the federal law that relate to experienced teachers.

Five states鈥擜labama, Hawaii, Kansas, Maryland, and Pennsylvania鈥攔equire all teachers, regardless of how long they鈥檝e been teaching, to have at least a college minor in the subjects they teach. They each received a B or a B-plus in the report.

鈥淭hough their standard falls short of NCLB鈥檚 goal of an academic major for all levels of teaching, this group of states offers a pragmatic response that other states should consider,鈥� the report says.

Thirty states offer teachers a menu, allowing them to acquire points for professional-development activities or serving on a committee. In fact, the report鈥檚 title, 鈥淪earching the Attic,鈥� is drawn from the image of teachers rummaging through old papers looking for evidence that they participated in some qualifying activity in the past.

鈥淭he insistence that 鈥榯here is more to teaching than subject-matter knowledge鈥� has often been taken to an illogical extreme, resulting in too many certified teachers who are inadequately prepared to teach their core discipline in the classroom,鈥� the authors write.

Colorado received an A-plus for being the only state to require all teachers to either pass tests in the subjects they teach or take the number of courses close to earning a major.

鈥淲hen it comes to embracing the spirit of NCLB, not just the letter, Colorado鈥檚 program does exactly that,鈥� the report says.

Eight states鈥擟alifornia, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia鈥攔eceived F鈥檚, mostly for allowing teachers too many options that are unrelated to subject knowledge.

But the authors鈥擪ate Walsh, the president of the council, and Emma Snyder, a researcher with the council鈥攄on鈥檛 place all the responsibility on the states for disappointing performance. Congress, the report says, should 鈥渞evisit the structure of the highly qualified teacher provision.鈥�

And the U.S. Department of Education, they recommend, should be clear that a major is no less than 30 credit hours, and a minor no less than 15.

Other definitions of a highly qualified teacher, the report says, could include certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, or a passing score on a test offered by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. Alternative-certification programs are a strategy supported by the council, which helped to found the ABCTE.

With the deadline for states having 鈥渉ighly qualified鈥� teachers just a year away, the council鈥檚 report is the latest to weigh in on that aspect of the law.

Tom Carroll, the president of the National Commission on Teaching and America鈥檚 Future, a nonprofit group in Arlington, Va., working to improve teacher preparation and make the teaching profession more rewarding, said the report suggests that states and Congress might be missing a prime opportunity to improve the quality of the teaching workforce. But he said many questions remain about how unqualified teachers are distributed at the school level.

There is still too much emphasis placed on the 鈥渋nputs鈥� of teacher quality, such as certification and testing, he added. With progress being made in the area of 鈥渧alue added鈥� research, he said, there should be more efforts to evaluate veteran teachers鈥� actual performance.