In a speech at the first annual Teacher Quality Evaluation Conference (recently held in Washington, DC), US Secretary of Education Rod Paige urged all states to radically alter their teacher certification programs by increasing the standards and decreasing the barriers that currently keep many qualified candidates from pursing teaching careers. Paige's speech was based on results of the 78-page...

Recently released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)(last described in the October 16, 1998 Scout Report), this is the first in a new series of biennial reports "specifically focused on teachers' learning (both preservice and continued) and the environments in which they work." This report is based on a recent national survey which examined the issues of teacher preparation,...

Retrieved from the Education Policy Analysis Archives, this paper, authored by Ildiko Laczko-Kerr and Professor David Berliner of Arizona State University, offers a critical analytical examination of the academic achievements of students instructed by under-certified primary school teachers (including those participating in the Teach For America program). The study compares the performance on a...

Part of George W. Bush's new No Child Left Behind Act requires that a "highly qualified teacher" must be present in all classrooms. Teacher quality has long been an area of interest for scholars in the field of education, and this most recent paper from the Educational Policy Analysis Archives looks at various techniques utilized by different states and school districts designed to strengthen...