How The States Rate

A decade ago, the nation's 50 governors gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, to figure out some way—any way—to improve education. Though the guest list for this unusual summit featured a selection of business executives, dignitaries, and policy wonks, there were no teachers. Not a single one.

Today, there's a lot of irony in that. In states facing shortages of classroom help, governors are courting teachers with the sort of financial enticements and sweet talk they usually lavish on relocating Fortune 500 companies. Tax credits, scholarships, loan forgiveness, bonuses—they're all being dangled as bait for anyone certified to teach. What's more, governors have turned to the nitty-gritty issues of teacher quality: Who should teach? How do we help them? And how do we keep them?

With the governors talking a good game now, state legislatures this spring are likely to be zeroing in on teacher issues. And not a moment too soon. Recently, our sister publication, Education Week , issued a damning report on state teacher policies. The fourth in the newspaper's Quality Counts series on education reform, it is the most exhaustive survey to date of what states are doing to put good teachers in front of their schoolchildren. According to Education Week , most states do not aggressively recruit people to be teachers. Nor do they adequately support beginning teachers. Moreover, many states play an elaborate shell game with credentialing and licensing policies, setting high standards for would-be teachers but then opening monster-size loopholes for those who don't make the grade. The result: Millions of students sit down every day before teachers who do not meet minimum requirements...