North Dakota education officials will challenge a review that says the state does not meet new federal qualification guidelines for teachers.

The federal Education Department said Wednesday that North Dakota and most other states don't meet the criteria for guaranteeing "highly qualified" teachers under the federal No Child Left Behind education law.

Greg Gallagher, the standards and achievement director for the North Dakota's Department of Public Instruction, said the state already has met the law's requirements and will ask for "outright reconsideration."

"We have achieved the end result," Gallagher said Wednesday. "How do we submit a plan for something we have already accomplished? We, in fact, have achieved what the law has required. We are showing final achievement of the goal and they want evidence of a plan to achieve the goal."

Gallagher said the state would ask for reconsideration immediately.

"We believe there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the state's proposal - we have some very clear challenges to communicate that," Gallagher said. "Schools are fully staffed with qualified teachers."

North Dakota's plan "had a number of serious deficiencies, including but not limited to the lack of a plan with specific steps adequate to ensure that poor and minority children are taught at the same rates as other children by highly qualified and experienced teachers," the federal review said.

The review said North Dakota's plan would not meet the goals by the end of the 2006-07 school year.

Plans submitted by states were reviewed by outside review teams, mainly state officials.

"Comments from the peer reviewers were off the mark," Gallagher said. "Our job is to correct their findings."