For the past decade, the teaching profession has been hard at work building a system of quality assurance.
Teacher quality is on the national agenda as never before.
Finally, there is widespread recognition of the fact that the teacher is the single most important school-based determinant of student learning. That fact accords not only with every parent's common sense, but also with research. For the past decade, the teaching profession has been hard at work building a system of quality assurance that will increase the likelihood that every child will be taught by a caring, competent, and qualified teacher. The results are only now beginning to be noticed. There are seven elements of this system, none of which existed until the mid- to late 1980s.