Questions about whether states play a role in ensuring access to high-quality teaching talent in local communities have ceased. Increasingly, states are encouraging and requiring more robust preparation programs; more efficient human resources departments that identify, recruit, place, and support the most effective educators; and more continuous and focused support for efforts to promote and retain the best and brightest in the profession. This publication documents the growing recognition among state policymakers of their leadership responsibility to incentivize, support, and monitor local educator quality reforms; their capacity to address these issues more aggressively; and examples of innovative policies and practices that have emerged during the last few years. This publication contains the following: (1) Building Capacity to Increase Teacher Effectiveness and Equity (Sabrina W. M. Laine); (2) The Changing Profile of America's Teachers: Who Are Our Teachers? (Jane G. Coggshall and Amy Potemski); (3) Case Study: Montana (Lynn R. Holdheide and Robey Clark); (4) Enhancing Teacher Preparation, Development, and Support (Daniel J. Reschly, Lynn R. Holdheide, Ellen Behrstock, and Gretchen Weber); (5) Building a Community of Practice Among IHEs to Prepare New York City's Teachers (Jamie Alter with Jane G. Coggshall); (6) The Equitable Distribution of Teachers: Strategies and Results (Laura Goe); (7) The Distribution of Teachers in Delaware (Laura Goe and Carolyn Parker); (8) Addressing the Equitable Distribution of Teachers in Tennessee (Donna Carr and Georgeanne Oxnam); (9) Considerations for Using Evaluation and Compensation to Enhance Teacher Effectiveness (Cortney Rowland); (10) Case Study: Utah (Laura Goe, Marie Mancuso, and Paul Koehler); and (11) Ohio's Teacher Evaluation Guidelines (Cortney Rowland). Individual articles contain references. (Contains 15 figures and 3 tables.) [Contributing authors include Jamie Alter, Ellen Behstock, Donna Carr, Robey Clark, Jane G. Coggshall, Laura Goe; Lynn R. Holdheide, Paul Koehler, Sabrina W.M. Laine, Marie Mancuso, Georgeanne Oxnam, Carolyn Parker, Amy Potemski, Daniel J. Reschly, Cortney Rowland, and Gretchen Weber.]