Improving Teacher Quality

Using data from 15 countries, this groundbreaking work examines teacher quality, work norms, and professional learning opportunities. The authors compare and contrast the United States with two high-achieving countries—Japan and Australia—that have implemented very different approaches to improving teacher quality. Drawing on both large international data sets and ethnographic and small-scale studies, the book addresses critical questions:

• How do teacher quality, teacher recruitment, and hiring policies in the United States differ from those in other countries?
• How do the working conditions of U.S. teachers differ from those of teachers in other countries?
• How do U.S. teachers’ opportunities for professional learning differ from those of teachers in other countries?
• How do the characteristics of the national teaching force influence student achievement?
• What U.S. policies offer promise for improving teacher quality?

Motoko Akiba is Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri–Columbia and a 2008 recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award. Gerald LeTendre is Professor of Education and International Affairs and chair of the Educational Policy Studies Department at Pennsylvania State University. He is currently editor of the American Journal of Education and serves on the editorial board of the Comparative Education Review.

“An indispensable contribution to ongoing national and international discussions of educational reform.”
—Irving Epstein, Illinois Wesleyan University