BA and MS in subject area of teaching, particularly Science and Math. Current state Certification is almost meaningless, because a BA in Education is mostly preferable in most states to a BA or BS in Science or Math, Certifcation laws need to be changed to give automatic certification to people with MA or MS degress in the subject area of teaching.

Ability to differentiate curricula and assessments for individual children. To motivate children to want to continue learning. To Inspire!

I believe that a highly qualified teacher is measured by performance in the classroom, continual professional development, experience, and evaluation by peers and students. Does one need more than a bachelor's degree? I don't think so. Just a willingness to continue learning and growing along with changes in curriculum and methodology.

One must reach the student and bring out the best in him. So that he or she retain the information and makes a personal connection with the materail.

You can have all the degrees and not be qualified to teach any subject. Possessing knowledge of the curriculum content means little if you no not possess; the skill with which to present the material, the ability to relate to the students, and lack the desire to impart this knowledge to children. If we cannot reach the children by loving them, they will not open up to what you can teach them. Qualifications to teach should include some way to determine their desire and empathy toward children. We have to care first.

Teacher education does not make a highly qualified teacher. A highly qualified teacher is one who loves their job, is able to make their subject matter exciting and learn-able to their students and is willing to take the risks necessary for students to learn. We are caught in the world of standardized tests that prove only that we can teach the test to a large number of students and make our numbers look good.

We don't need just "good" teachers - we need great ones. Ones that can connect with students, recognize the teachable monemt, have knowledge of their subjects, and are flexible to adapt and use new ideas and methods.
Without all of the above, no degree - no matter how high when earned can make a highly qualified teacher.

Highly qualified teachers are those teachers who light the spark for students to want to learn. All the credentials in the world will not help a child learn if the child is not motivated. A highly qualified teacher also recognizes the learning style and level at which a student is able to learn. The HQ teacher then uses the knowledge to effectively motivate the student.

The best way to determine whether a teacher is "highly qualified", or any other level of qualification is to ask their students, their principal or their peers.

We don't measure student success, so you can't use that. Degrees do not tell you anything about whether they can teach or not. Continuing ed, ditto. You can't measure a person's performance by these static means.

Let the building personnel determine qualifications based on performance in the classroom, staffroom and hallways.

My mother was a highly qualified teacher who taught for 30 years on a lifetime credential that required no further units. Although she was under no obligation to continue taking classes or submit herself to vacuous staff development that I have never seen implemented, she always took classes and sought other avenues of learning throughout her life. She was part of an innercity Los Angeles Unified School District that at the time was a self-motivated professional teaching corp that demanded and achieved excellence from its students.

Degrees, certification, and demonstrated mastery are of no avail in the present LAUSD - even to a "highly qualified teacher" - if the students the teacher is given continue to be socially promoted and are years behind in the mastery of grade-level standards.

As a high school teacher, I have no trouble having my competency as a teacher judged by student performance, if the initial level of my students is taken into consideration in making this assessment. However, asking me to achieve grade-level standards for students who enter my classroom years behind after being socially promoted is dishonesty.

Trying to shift the focus of the present failed public education system to teachers by seeking "highly qualified teachers" is less than forthright when garden variety qualified teachers like my mother would do just fine if someone had the political guts to draw the line in terms of minimal grade-level achievement necessary for passage on a grade by grade basis. Or to paraphrase former President Harry Truman, "The buck stops where?"