This report highlights how key parts of the teacher work force "system" should work together and helps you ask--and answer--questions about emerging solutions that offer promise. Policy-makers in SREB states should focus on five policy areas in which there is now considerable data, plus three emerging policy areas that are growing in importance. Will the No Child Left Behind Act help states get it right in any of these policy areas? The No Child Left Behind Act is challenging states to put a "highly qualified" teacher in every classroom and to limit the practice of assigning teachers to classes that they are not prepared to teach. What could have been a drive for real change, however, now appears to be off-track. While states want, and should have, flexibility in how teachers can demonstrate subject-matter knowledge, the federal law may give states and districts too much latitude. As a result, no meaningful change is likely to occur. While there is much talk and statistics show that almost 100 percent of teachers in some states are deemed "highly qualified," we likely will find that it is "business as usual" in licensing, hiring and assigning teachers.