Mrs. Margie Saunders found her passion in teaching. Her specialty was AP Art History. She was AP certified in 2005. For eleven years, she engaged her students and made them care about art. Her test scores were phenomenal those eleven years, with an over 80% passing rate on the national AP exam. However, this year Mrs. Saunders learned that the state would not allow her to teach AP Art History because she was not, according to their standards, “highly qualified.” Even though she was AP certified, had eleven years of experience teaching Art History, and had high pass rates on the national AP tests, the State of Georgia decided she could not teach the class effectively because she did not have an Art in Secondary Education certificate that would make her “HiQ.”

Mrs. Saunders creates an engaging learning environment that drives students to be curious and motivated to learn. She knows her students and knows how to get all of them involved in the class. While there is a massive amount of subject matter to go over in the curriculum, Mrs. Saunders is able to teach her classes all of the material in a way that the students are able to retain it. By saying that she is not qualified enough to teach the class, the Georgia Department of Education is ignoring the facts in favor of a bureaucratic technicality.

The testing system in order to earn this all important certificate is flawed. In order to be certified to teach AP Art History, a teacher must pass not only the Art History Georgia Assessment for the Certification of Educators, but also either the GACE in art education or history education as well. The art exam includes such things as how to teach students to make collages and kiln safety, content not actually taught in an AP Art History class. The history test is filled with the most arcane, irrelevant information that one would need only to teach an AP social studies class. Mrs. Saunders aced the Art History test, since this is her subject area, but missed passing the art test by one question. This one question on a test that covers a class she does not teach is costing Mrs. Saunders her entire beloved subject.

As of June 2015, Georgia schools get another three year pass from No Child Left Behind requirements. Even though Georgia has been granted a waiver from NCLB for AYP, the teachers are still required to be HiQ. In Georgia, a child’s school does not have to meet AYP, but the teachers must have a degree in their subject and pass two certification tests.

Since Georgia implemented HiQ under No Child Left Behind in 2001, in her eleven years of teaching Mrs. Saunders’s students have had over 80% passing rate. She meets HiQ in practice. She has produced the results the state wants without the certification for eleven years. If we genuinely care about educating children, then we will stop being so hung up on a HiQ designation in favor of a teacher that so obviously gets the job done. If decisions were made truly in the interest of children, there would be some different decisions made.  We, the students of Mrs. Saunders as well as her other supporters, request that she be allowed to continue teaching a subject she is obviously qualified to teach. The state of Georgia already has a shortage of teachers, it makes no sense to take a subject away from an effective teacher when so few people are willing to remain at their posts in the Georgia public education system.