Opinion ID: 799639
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the teacher has obtained full State cer-

Text: tification as a teacher (including certifi- cation obtained through alternative routes to certification)[.] 20 U.S.C. § 7801(23) (emphasis added). NCLB did not define “full State certification,” but it made clear — whatever “full State certification” meant — that such certification must have been obtained before a teacher could be characterized as “highly qualified.” [2] The federal regulation, quoted at length above, begins by essentially repeating the pre-Section 163 statutory language. The regulation provides that a “highly qualified teacher” “must . . . have obtained full State certification as a teacher, which may include certification obtained through alternative routes to certification.” 34 C.F.R. § 200.56(a)(1)(i) (emphasis added). It then goes on, however, to provide that an alternative-route teacher is “highly qualified” even if he or she has not obtained “full State certification.” It provides that a teacher “meets the requirements in paragraph (a)(1)” (which include the requirement that “full State certification” have already been obtained), if that teacher “[i]s participating in an alternative route to certification program” and RENEE v. DUNCAN 5025 “[d]emonstrates satisfactory progress toward full certification as prescribed by the State.” Id. § 200.56(a)(2)(ii) (emphasis added). In his pre-Section 163 brief to us, the Secretary pointed out that the meaning of “full State certification” in NCLB was ambiguous because it depends to a substantial degree on state law. We agreed that the meaning of “full State certification” in NCLB is ambiguous because it substantially depends on state law. But this ambiguity was irrelevant. [3] Before the passage of Section 163, the “precise question at issue,” Chevron, 467 U.S. at 842, was not the meaning of “full State certification” as used in NCLB. Rather, the “precise question at issue” was the difference between the meaning of “has obtained” full State certification in the statute, 20 U.S.C. § 7801(23), and the meaning of “demonstrates satisfactory progress toward” full State certification in the regulation, 34 C.F.R. § 200.56(a)(2)(ii). The difference between having obtained something and merely making satisfactory progress toward obtaining it is patent. The panel majority concluded, before the passage of Section 163, that the Secretary’s regulation impermissibly expanded the definition of “highly qualified teacher” contained in 20 U.S.C. § 7801(23) by including in that definition an alternative-route teacher who merely “demonstrates satisfactory progress toward” the requisite “full State certification.” Renee II, 623 F.3d at 796. [4] We therefore held, before the passage of Section 163, that § 200.56(a)(2)(ii) was invalid because it was inconsistent with the “unambiguously expressed intent of Congress.” Chevron, 467 U.S. at 843. We emphasized that our holding was based on the difference between the meaning of “has obtained” in 20 U.S.C. § 7801(23) and the meaning of “demonstrates satisfactory progress toward” in § 200.56(a)(2)(ii).