SACRAMENTO, CA - Ample research confirms that teacher quality has a large effect on student performance. Good teachers raise student achievement levels, while poor ones keep them down. California's recent efforts to ensure high-quality teachers in the classroom, however, have been misguided and deceptive.

There is no doubt that California faces a teacher quality crisis. For example, according to the latest statistics, more than a third of eighth-grade math teachers in California did not major in either math or math education in college. Such numbers are disturbing considering that studies show that student achievement is tied to teachers' knowledge of their subject field. Yet, California is doing little to guarantee that teachers in the classroom have subject-matter competence.

California's missteps in implementing the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) are a case in point. NCLB emphasizes subject-matter competence in its provisions on teacher quality. Under NCLB, teachers new to the profession must pass a subject matter test to prove their competence. Commendably, California has developed such subject matter tests.

However, NCLB also says that teachers already in the profession can prove their subject-area competence through means such as passing a subject test or having a degree in the subject field. This opens the way for a potential loophole, in the form of the so-called High, Objective, Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE).

NCLB allows states to design a HOUSSE program that's supposed to determine veteran teachers' subject-matter competency. California recently adopted a HOUSSE system that gives points to teachers for various activities, with 100 points being necessary to be considered highly qualified in the subject field. Some point categories do make sense, such as having taken college-level courses in the subject field. However, other categories are troubling.

It's possible, for example, to get up to half the points a teacher needs simply by having taught classes in the subject field. Thus, a PE teacher teaching math for five years could get half the points necessary to prove that he or she is a highly qualified math teacher.

Worse, a teacher can earn up to 90 points through so-called "leadership and service to the profession in assigned area.'' Although the state lists activities that could earn teachers points in this category, such as serving as department chair, it says that, "This list is not exhaustive.'' In other words, schools have wide latitude to figure out creative ways to give points to teachers deficient in subject matter.

Teachers can also earn points by having their colleagues observe their work in the classroom, always a subjective enterprise. Points can be given for vague and non-subject-matter related observations such as "Establishing and communicating learning goals for all students.''

Because of these and other defects, the National Council for Teacher Quality gave California an 'F'' grade in its just-released evaluation of state HOUSSE systems. In contrast, California's northern neighbor, Oregon, received a 'B+'' because it gave veteran teachers the single option of taking subject-matter courses. The Council described Oregon's system as "Abundantly clear, simple, no loopholes.''

The Council recommends that all teachers, experienced as well as the newly licensed, should demonstrate their knowledge of subject matter only through college-level coursework or through passing a subject-matter test. California should take this advice to heart and stop disguising poor-quality teachers with a high-quality mask.

Lance T. Izumi is a senior fellow in California Studies at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco. He can be reached via email at lizumi@pacificresearch.org.