The national organization that accredits education schools has stiffened its standards and is pressing programs to submit themselves to scrutiny. And the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, an outgrowth of the Carnegie report, has begun setting standards of accomplished practice and certifying expert teachers who can meet them. These steps, advocates say, eventually will put teaching on a similar footing with other professions, such as law, medicine, and architecture. In those fields, members of the profession set their own standards for entry into the field. In return for this relative freedom from outside regulation, their members strive to uphold high standards and discipline one another when they fail.
Teaching is one of the country's most unionized occupations.
The National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, boasts 2.2 million members. Its rival, the American Federation of Teachers, has 900,000 members. And there are signs that the teachers' unions are interested in playing a greater role in ensuring that their members are well prepared for the job. A group of union leaders from both organizations is meeting regularly to discuss the future of teacher unionism, with an eye toward school quality rather than employee protections and benefits. But in some cases, the unions are seen as an obstacle.