Of the 10 Utah districts with the largest percentages of teachers who do not meet the standards, nine are more than 100 miles from a university, said Larry Shumway, Utah Office of Education director of educator quality services.

The finding is among revelations the state reports in a teacher quality plan it submitted to the U.S. Office of Education on Monday. It is one of numerous reasons Utah, along with other states, struggles to meet teacher quality standards.

Federal officials homed in on Utah for failing to submit the plan earlier this year as required of all states under the No Child Left Behind education reform law. Under NCLB, all teachers must be "highly qualified" in what they teach, meaning they must have majored in the subject in college or demonstrated mastery through additional course work or state-approved tests.

The plan Utah finally submitted Monday details how the state will ensure all teachers are qualified in the subjects they teach.

The Utah Education Office declined to provide a copy of the report. A federal official said it will be reviewed over the next several weeks and is expected to be made public once the analysis is complete.

Problems the state faces in meeting the federal standard are "not nearly so much about teacher quality as how teachers are assigned," said Shumway, explaining that teachers are not always teaching in the subject they majored in at college.

Education officials preparing the plan discovered that upper level math teachers - such as those teaching geometry or calculus - are more likely to have a math major than those teaching lower level math classes.

In the plan, the state identifies 32 schools that face myriad challenges in meeting the standard. These schools typically have a significant minority and/or low-income student population and may not have met minimum academic proficiency standards required under NCLB. Some of the schools also have a percentage of highly qualified teachers significantly below the state average.

Most of the schools are in urban, minority-heavy districts.

The plan says the state will ask districts and charter schools to identify which staff members are not qualified by federal standards and which schools have the lowest numbers of highly qualified staff. It also details how the state education office will help schools and districts increase their numbers of highly qualified staff.

Utah, which has long been critical of NCLB, has been unhappy with federal teacher quality requirements particularly as they relate to rural areas and special education. Because many rural teachers have to teach multiple subjects at small schools, they are less likely to be considered highly qualified in all their classes.

The state is hopeful requirements may soften.

"We're sensing some flexibility at the department level on those matters," said Patti Harrington, state superintendent of public instruction.

The submitted plan is the result of statewide forums held this summer involving district superintendents, teachers, higher education representatives and others.

jlyon@sltrib.com

Highly qualified teachers

To be considered a "highly qualified teacher" under the federal No Child Left Behind law, teachers must:

* have majored in the subject they teach in college or

* have demonstrated mastery of the subject they teach through additional course work or state-approved tests.