No Educator Left Behind is a series providing answers from the U.S. Department of Education to questions about the federal No Child Left Behind Act and how it will affect educators. If you have a question about No Child Left Behind, send an e-mail to Ellen Delisio, and we will submit your question to the Department of Education.

Question:

For the purposes of demonstrating subject matter competency for teachers in middle grades, who determines whether middle grades are designated as elementary or secondary grades?

U.S. Department of Education:

State law determines whether a grade level is elementary or secondary. Therefore, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) does not directly address the issue of whether teachers in middle grades are considered elementary school teachers, with general core content knowledge, or secondary content specialists. For the purposes of determining whether a middle school teacher meets the NCLB subject matter competency requirements, states are encouraged to examine, for each core academic subject, the degree of rigor and technicality of the subject matter a teacher needs to know in relation to the state 's content standards and academic achievement standards.

The intent of NCLB is to ensure that teachers have sufficient subject matter knowledge and skills to instruct effectively in the core academic subject he or she teaches.

Read previous questions and answers in our No Educator Left Behind archive.