Federal efforts to improve teacher quality. In: Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned
Citation:
Kraft MA. Federal efforts to improve teacher quality. In: Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned. Harvard Education Press ; 2018. pp. 69-84.
Abstract:
Bush’s and Obama’s federal education reforms were remarkably similar in their goals and ambitions. Bush’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and Obama’s Race to the Top (RTTT) and NCLB state waiver programs leveraged federal funding and authority to address four broad areas: academic standards, data and accountability, teacher quality, and school turnarounds. This chapter focuses specifically on how these efforts have influenced the teaching profession. During Bush’s and Obama’s combined sixteen years in office, the federal government succeeded in fundamentally changing licensure requirements and evaluation systems for public school teachers. Reflecting on the successes and failures of these reforms provides important lessons about the potential and limitations of federal policy as a tool for improving the quality of the US teacher workforce.