Secretary's Remarks | Press Release |
New Teacher Initiatives | The Full Report |
Statement of NCES Commissioner

Over the next decade, America's schools will need to hire more than 2 million teachers to deal with continued growth of record-breaking enrollments and teacher retirements. This need arises at a point when states and local schools are developing more challenging academic standards for students. To improve student learning, we must ensure that our teachers can meet high standards. Through the following initiatives, the Clinton Administration is committed to investing in the recruitment, preparation, innovative practices and support of a high-quality teaching force for the schools of the 21st century.

Recruiting Talented Americans of All Ages into Teaching

• Supporting recruitment and preparation of qualified teachers to serve high-need communities;
• Awarding competitive grants to states that support recruitment of teachers to work in areas that suffer a shortage of qualified teaching candidates;
• Investing in efforts to support the training of teachers who meet the critical need for fully certified bilingual and English-as-a-second-language teachers;
• Expanding the Troops-to-Teachers program to include other mid-career professionals who want to make the transition to become classroom teachers;
• Developing recruitment and training efforts for 1,000 new teachers to serve areas with high numbers of American Indian and Alaska Native students, and;
• Forgiving student loans for students who agree to teach in high-poverty schools.

Preparing Teachers for the Challenges of Today's Classroom

• Supporting local partnerships between teacher-education schools and high-need school districts to strengthen prospective teachers' mastery of content knowledge and teaching skills;
• Awarding grants to states that make teacher-education schools more accountable and provide rigorous alternative routes into teaching;
• Investing in technology training opportunities to help prepare tomorrow's teachers to integrate technology effectively into the curriculum, and;
• Supporting the training of teachers who are well prepared to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities.

Promoting Rigorous Standards for Teachers

• Fostering high-quality teaching through a competitive priority in a state grants program that encourages states to strengthen certification and licensure requirements, and;
• Working with states to develop "report cards" on teacher quality that disclose such factors as the percentage of teachers who work with sub-standard licenses.

Helping Teachers Keep Their Skills Up-to-Date
and Energized through Professional Development

• Promoting innovative teaching practices and greater mastery of content through grants to school districts and institutions of higher education that support intensive, high-quality professional development activities that help teachers teach to high standards;
• Improving the teaching of reading, mathematics and science by investing in professional development activities that disseminate new teaching techniques based on current research and best practices;
• Helping to integrate technology effectively into the classroom through training opportunities for teachers;
• Supporting more individualized instruction through a piece of the President's class size reduction initiative that helps new and veteran teachers learn effective teaching practices and strategies for teaching smaller classes, and;
• Providing more support for professional development opportunities in high-poverty schools by expanding investment in Title I resources by more than a third.

Rewarding Good Teaching

• Raising the professional standing of teaching through support of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, which grants National Board certification to exemplary teachers who attain "master teacher" status by excelling on assessments in 30 specialized areas.

Researching and Disseminating What Works in the Classroom

• Identifying models of high-quality professional development through a national awards program that recognizes programs with proven records of increased teacher effectiveness and student achievement;
• Supporting the National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching, which enables those who teach and influence the teaching profession to develop and implement a knowledge-based consensus on effective practices and policies, and;
• Underwriting the work of the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy, which focuses on ways that policy makers can improve the recruitment and retention of capable teachers, develop and enhance their knowledge and skills, and support teaching and student learning.

-###-

[ Top of document ]