As the country's K-12 student population grows more ethnically diverse, students of color face the troubling possibility of never having a teacher who looks like them. According to federal data, more than 40 percent of students are nonwhite, compared to just 17 percent of teachers, and that mismatch appears to be on the rise. But a new project is…

Since the nation plunged into economic turmoil, a handful of states have scaled back pay bonuses and subsidies for teachers who earn certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). But factors other than the economy have also played into the cuts, too. Officials in Georgia, for instance, contend that the state…

Lindsay E. Carlton has taught mathematics to students at different grades, with different ability levels. Now, the young educator's state wants to recognize her ability to work with one group in particular: 8th graders enrolled in introductory algebra. Carlton is one of many math educators across Arkansas who plan to acquire a new, unusual state…

When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sought a leader for the New York City schools in 2002, his outside-the-box choice was Joel I. Klein, a former assistant U.S. attorney general who had no experience as a school administrator. Eight years later, in seeking a replacement for Mr. Klein, Mr. Bloomberg has tapped yet another person from outside education:…

Teachers who earn advanced certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards are more effective than teachers without that credential, but there is little evidence to show the program has transformed the field in the broader ways its founders envisioned, a long-awaited report released last week by a national scientific…

Across the nation, alternative-route program officials say they are seeing increasing enrollments from career-changers with strong backgrounds in the highly sought-after fields of math, science, and technology. But the extent to which school district administrators are primed to take advantage of larger--and in some cases stronger--talent pools in…

Ask a parent, politician, or school board member to describe the ideal qualifications of a math teacher, and most would probably rank having a college major in that subject high on the list. Yet when it comes to improving student learning in elementary and middle school, research shows that the value of that academic credential is limited--at…

With the number of teachers who have won certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) expected to reach 60,000 by year's end, the credential has become a fixed part of the education scene. However, the group's success raises at least one new troubling question about the certification's future value, and fails…

This article discusses how the degrees earned by a dozen educators on the Internet have raised fraud issues. Small firms known as "credential evaluators" help states and school districts detect educators who present phony or flimsy academic credentials from overseas institutions--a safeguard that is becoming more important with the…

With children's early years increasingly recognized as a critical time for learning, more policymakers see a four-year college degree as a necessity for teachers in preschool programs receiving state and federal money. Many state-financed preschool programs require teachers to have four-year degrees. As federal lawmakers debate renewing the Head…

Teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards are for the most part no more effective in producing student academic progress than teachers without the special status, a long-awaited study concludes. The research, which draws on one of the largest data sets used so far to examine the credential, was completed well…