Regulations are the fundamental principles by which a QECO evaluation is conducted. A QECO evaluation may not deviate from the application of the regulations.
1. A QECO Evaluation may only be issued to Ontario certified teachers who are members of one of the sponsoring affiliates; to retired teachers who were previously members of one of the sponsoring affiliates; or to teachers in their certification year of an Ontario publicly funded teacher education program.
2. QECO evaluates teacher academic qualifications exclusive of Ontario professional teacher certification requirements.
3. QECO will not evaluate the qualifications of those whose authority to teach is a Letter of Permission.
4. No qualification may receive duplicate recognition.
5. QECO shall give an official decision on the acceptability of any course submitted for higher category placement.
6. All degrees listed are used in the QECO Evaluation unless otherwise indicated.
7. All qualifications obtained outside Ontario shall be evaluated equitably based on current QECO evaluation standards.
8. Minimum requirements for any category must be fully attained before that category will be assigned.
9. QECO Evaluation Program 5 is the only operative Evaluation Program.
10. Any teacher applying for a QECO Evaluation shall:
a. Not lose any category previously assigned under a different QECO or OSSTF Certification program.
b. Have all valid QECO and OSSTF Certification letters under previous policies and/or programs stating upgrading requirements honoured.
c. Have current QECO university course definitions apply to all present and previous letters.
11. It is the responsibility of the individual teacher to apply for an evaluation or for any change in evaluation after additional qualifications have been attained or on a yearly basis if not yet in Category A4. The application form is available on the QECO website www.qeco.ca/applications.
12. QECO will not be responsible for informing individual teachers of any changes in Ontario College of Teachers’ policies or other domestic or international institutional policies, which may impact the operation of this evaluation program, or the qualifications of individual teachers.
Special Note
QECO evaluates teacher qualifications based upon the documentation supplied by the teacher.
QECO exercises its best efforts to advise any teacher, who makes an inquiry as to those qualifications, which would be required to achieve a higher category placement.
However, QECO does not and cannot provide explanations of all possible methods of attaining a higher category placement. Changes in university or the Ontario College of Teachers policy may also have a bearing on course selection for higher category placement.
Consequently, the teacher applicant must make a written inquiry to QECO to determine what effect a course or other qualification will have upon the QECO category placement. The category placement varies according to the qualifications earned since qualifications vary from teacher to teacher.
While the information which is provided with any evaluation will always be honoured, teachers who have not yet achieved QECO Category A4 placement should apply on a yearly basis.