Federal regulations have opened a door that allows schools to get credit under the No Child Left Behind Act for students who take longer than four years to earn a high school diploma. That option worries some education advocates, who fear it could relieve valuable pressure on high schools to graduate students on time. Under the law's…

This article examines definitions of "highly qualified" teachers posed by the federal government, the American public, the professionalization agenda in teacher education, and the deregulation movement in teacher education. It focuses on one university's definition in practice: the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. I describe…