FARGO - Karen Christensen would rather be busy preparing her lesson plans for the new school year than reviewing math formulas she will never teach in her first-grade classroom.

The Wishek teacher is one of thousands of veteran North Dakota instructors who were given a reprieve when federal officials backed off a ruling against the state's teacher quality standards.

"I was looking around for study guides for college algebra," said Christensen, who has been teaching for 23 years, the last 10 in Wishek. "As a first-grade teacher, I don't use college algebra."

The federal Education Department said last fall that North Dakota teachers did not have enough schooling to be considered highly qualified under the No Child Left Behind law. That ruling could have sent nearly 6,000 elementary and middle school teachers back to the books.

Teachers who couldn't document further college training would have been required to take a test.

"I certainly believe you should try and stay on top of the skill level you're at," Christensen said. "The thing that concerned me was that the test was going to deem me qualified or not."

The ruling would have affected two-thirds of the state's teachers in grades kindergarten through six, said Gloria Lokken, president of the North Dakota Education Association.

"That would be utter chaos," she said.

The Education Department revised the ruling in February, saying teachers currently licensed would not have to meet the higher requirements.

New teachers would be expected to pass a more difficult test to be hired, the department said.

Some teachers at or near retirement age would have resigned rather than take the test, Lokken said.

"If it meant putting out money and time and effort to go back and take classes, a lot of them would have just retired," Lokken said. "And we have a good population of teachers who are eligible to retire."

The state is not skirting the law, Lokken said. The ruling was reversed because Education Department officials realized that North Dakota teachers made the grade, she said.

Elementary teachers are licensed by the state if they have a degree in elementary education from an approved college. The No Child Left Behind legislation, passed in 2002, requires most teachers to have a college major or an advanced degree in the subject they teach.

"North Dakota teachers have got the elementary degree, they've met all the standards," Christensen said. "It shows in the performance of the students."

A number of national education groups say some states are too lenient or are not objective in classifying teachers as highly qualified. North Dakota teachers say their students may be the best measure.

A student in neighboring Napoleon, where Christensen worked as a teacher's aide, has put his education on display in national competition. Kevin Moch qualified for the national spelling bee two years in a row, finishing third in his second attempt. He is set to graduate this year.

"We have a lot of kids excel who you don't hear about," said Pam Gross, a 25-year teaching veteran who taught Kevin in both third and sixth grade. "North Dakota may have the lowest-paid teachers in the country, but we must be doing something right."