Position papers presented at a conference of state directors of teacher education and certification focused on the quality of educational personnel. The first paper details the need for new talent in teaching in spite of a decline in job opportunities that adversely affects the quality of the applicant pool prepared to enter the teaching profession. A framework for restructuring teacher preparation into a continuous professional development program, composed of five segments in a sixteen-year process leading to a single certificate at the undergraduate level is described in the second paper. The third paper discusses the development and use of criterion-referenced testing in Georgia along with on-the-job assessment during the first three years of teaching to achieve performance based teacher certification. In the fourth paper, the efforts of the New York Board of Regents to upgrade the performance levels of teachers and administrators are outlined. The fifth paper discusses the current use of teacher internships, both as preservice and as beginning experience and the need for increased management of the induction process. (FG)