The tenor of discussions held in Washington last week by negotiators rewriting federal rules on teacher preparation underscored deep-seated philosophical divisions within the field, including the thorny issue of how much responsibility schools of education should bear for producing effective teachers. Though the panelists did reach compromises on…

Teachers' unions in at least two states are threatening to withhold endorsements of their states' Race to the Top applications, which could jeopardize the states' chances of winning the coveted federal dollars. In a letter printed as an advertisement in the Tallahassee Democrat, Florida Education Association President Andy J. Ford discouraged…

As peer reviewers for the U.S. Department of Education begin to comb through the thousands of pages of applications for $4 billion in federal Race to the Top Fund grants, they'll be under pressure to determine which are most worthy of funding: those that promise the most, or those with the best chance of delivering. In a competition whose criteria…

In its fiscal 2011 budget request, the Obama administration has laid out its intention of carrying forward key teacher-effectiveness policies within the economic-stimulus law into the next edition of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In doing so, the budget proposal would invest heavily in competitive grants for new ways of recruiting,…

A variety of federally financed grants based on performance pay are providing insights into how districts and teachers can collaborate to implement sustainable programs designed to improve teaching and learning. The question of whether those Teacher Incentive Fund grants will yield measurably higher student achievement, applicant pools with…

In this article, the author talks about a report from Education Sector, a Washington think tank, which concludes that little information exists on whether the $3 billion spent annually by the federal government on teacher quality as part of the No Child Left Behind Act has improved the effectiveness of U.S. educators. The Teacher and Principal…