Policymaking at the federal level reflects a growing awareness that improving educational outcomes depends greatly upon increasing the quality of classroom instruction. In establishing the student performance standards and accountability provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, P.L. 107-110 ), legislators recognized that the success of these reforms rests largely on improving teachers' knowledge and skills. Thus, in enacting NCLB, Congress amended the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to establish a requirement that all teachers be highly qualified and authorized the Title II, Teacher and Principal Training and Recruiting Fund to assist schools' efforts to meet this new requirement. More recently, Congress enacted additional programs to improve the teacher workforce including the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grants, and amendments to the Higher Education Act (HEA). The NCLB highly qualified teacher requirement has now been the cornerstone of federal teacher policy for nearly a decade. In that time, the requirement has come to be seen by many as a minimum standard for entry into the profession (rather than a goal to which teachers might aspire) and a growing body of research has revealed its underlying credentials to be weakly correlated with student achievement. Meanwhile, congressional interest has begun to shift from a focus on teacher input (i.e., quality) to teacher output (i.e., effectiveness). Congress passed provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, P.L. 111-5 ) which required states applying for State Fiscal Stabilization Funds to provide assurances that they will take actions to improve teacher effectiveness. The Secretary of Education used ARRA authority to encourage states to better link student achievement and teacher effectiveness. The Secretary also promoted teacher effectiveness with an ESEA flexibility package that makes available waivers exempting states from certain NCLB accountability provisions, but requires the adoption of teacher evaluation policies. Congress is currently considering ESEA reauthorization proposals. Further, policy makers at all levels are considering how such issues as teacher compensation, licensure or certification, and tenure may relate to teacher performance in the classroom. The authorization for ESEA programs expired at the end of FY2008; however, these programs continue to operate as long as appropriations are provided. The 113 th Congress is likely to consider whether to amend and extend the ESEA. This report provides background information for the legislative debates likely to occur if Congress considers these programs and issues. The first part of this report gives a brief overview of the context in which federal teacher policy is situated, including such issues as the demographics of the teaching workforce, supply and demand, attrition and retention, compensation systems, certification/licensure policies, tenure rules, and unionization. The second part of this report describes the evolving federal role in teacher policy. Part three describes the major federal programs designed to support the quality and effectiveness of teachers, including Title II of the ESEA, TIF, TEACH Grants, and Title II of the HEA. The final part of this report discusses policy changes and ESEA reauthorization issues that might be considered by Congress. The organization and size of the public K-12 educational enterprise pose a significant challenge to formulating federal teacher policy. Nationwide, nearly 4 million teachers are employed in almost 100,000 public schools located in about 14,000 school districts. This is a decentralized system; states and localities have legal and administrative responsibility for K-12 education. School districts control most of the major aspects of this system, including the recruitment, hiring, evaluation, professional development, compensation, and retention of teachers. Some aspects of the system—like certification procedures and tenure rules—are dictated at the state level. Pre-service teacher preparation and in-service training often take place at higher education institutions. Teacher assignments and evaluations are often the domain of schools. This section discusses how these factors shape the teacher policy context. The elementary and secondary teaching force is large. There are just under 3.9 million public school teachers in the United States. Of these teachers, 2.4 million are elementary school teachers, 1.2 million are secondary school teachers, and the remaining teachers (slightly more than 358,000) teach in settings that are a combination of the two. The teaching workforce is split about evenly between urban schools (1.1 million teachers), suburban schools (1.4 million), and rural or small town schools (1.4 million). Over three-fourths (76%) of K-12 teachers are female. For teachers whose main field of assignment is in kindergarten or general elementary education, nearly 9 out of 10 are female; compared to 6 out of 10 in secondary schools. The large majority (84%) of the teaching force is white, while 7% of teachers are black, 7% are Hispanic, slightly more than 1% are Asian or Pacific Islander, and less than 1% are American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander. The teaching workforce is aging. The average age of school teachers is 43; an increase of three years over the last two decades. One-third (33%) of teachers are age 50 or older; compared to 25% in 1993-1994 and 18% in 1987-1988. On average, school teachers have 13 years of teaching experience; over a third (37%) have 15 or more years of experience and 20% have taught 15 or more years in their current school . Nearly two-fifths (19%) have less than four years of teaching experience and over a third (36%) have been in their current school less than four years. The impending retirement of Baby Boom generation teachers who made lifelong commitments to education may pose both challenges and opportunities for teacher policy. There are those who warn of a potential shortage of teachers in the coming years, precipitated by projected increases in student enrollment and an anticipated rise in teacher retirements. Public school enrollment increased 12% between 1993 and 2006 and is expected to continue to grow, at a slightly lower rate, to be about 8% larger by 2018. Further, the average age of public school teachers has risen and, as more teachers are eligible to retire, it is anticipated that the attrition rate will increase over time. Between 1998 and 2008, "annual attrition from the teaching force rose by 41 percent, from 6.4 percent to 9 percent." Some estimate that the nation may lose as much as half of its teachers to retirement over the next decade. Others question the possibility or existence of an overall teacher shortage. One of the primary reasons is that the supply side of the equation is particularly difficult to quantify. More than half of all newly hired teachers are former teachers returning to the classroom after taking some time away from the profession and about a quarter are delayed entrants who had prepared to teach at some earlier point but did not enter teaching directly. It is very difficult to estimate the size of this latter group, the so-called reserve pool of teachers who either delay entry or return after a time away. Roughly two-out-of-five (41%) teachers are delayed entrants (i.e., they started teaching between one and four years after receiving their bachelor's degree). About 100,000 bachelor's degrees in education are awarded each year. Research suggests that as many as one-half of these graduates do not teach their first year out of school and the oversupply of teachers at the elementary level may be even greater. Another reason why the notion of a systemic teacher shortage may be misguided is that much of the demand for teachers results from teacher turnover; especially at so-called hard-to-staff schools and subjects. This turnover has more to do with failure to retain newly hired teachers as opposed to retirements. Some schools have such low teacher retention that most of the demand and hiring is simply to replace teachers recently departed from their positions. While it is true that teacher retirements are increasing, the overall volume of turnover due to retirement is relatively minor when compared with that resulting from other causes, such as teacher job dissatisfaction and teachers seeking to pursue better jobs or other careers. At the end of the 2008-2009 school year, roughly 526,000 (roughly 16% of all) public school teachers left the school where they had been teaching; about 256,000 transferred to a different school and about 270,000 left teaching. Teacher certification or licensure is a state function. A license to teach typically means that the holder has met at least minimal standards set by the state and is, thereby, permitted to teach. The educational, experiential, testing, and other requirements for licensure vary from state to state. Often, the licensing process in a state includes a provisional license good for a limited number of years and granted to an individual who has completed an approved teacher education program and attained passing scores on an examination given to teacher candidates. This license is usually succeeded by a longer term license awarded, perhaps, for successful completion of the initial entry period of teaching and attainment of additional education. In addition to regular licenses, many states grant "intern" and "limited" licenses in order to fill vacancies quickly. These temporary licenses may be granted with an expectation that the holder will make progress to full certification through so-called alternative routes . Initiatives such as Teach for America, Inc. and IBM's Transition to Teaching program provide an additional means for bringing non-traditional teaching candidates (e.g., recently graduated, non-education majors and individuals seeking to change careers) into teaching in a structured fashion. One analysis estimates that as many as 40% of current teachers entered the profession through a nontraditional or alternative route. The hiring process for teachers is usually handled by districts' human resources departments, although some districts give schools a greater role in the process than others. Most districts conduct the entire hiring and placement process. Less often, but perhaps increasingly, human resource departments may simply review applicants' background and credentials and leave the rest up to schools.