Tim teaches science in my school. Starting just his fifth year he is one of the most outstanding teachers with whom I have worked. He has led our staff in rethinking how to integrate our state standards into our experiential curriculum, led the school's research efforts on adolescent literacy, and is doing research on concept attainment and vocabulary skills. Kids love his classes because they are always engaged and challenged — be it when they found warning tape and flashing lights at the classroom door warning of an oil spill (which they had to clean up) or the energetic demonstrations of plate tectonics complete with audio and visual aids. Tim is simply an outstanding teacher.

And this may be the last year he teaches my students.

After five years of teaching Tim still makes less than $30,000 annually, even after I find ways to supplement his salary by giving workshops or consulting. A child of a working class family, he left college with a five figure debt. In order to meet state regulations to keep his teaching certificate, he has had to pursue a masters degree, adding yet more debt to his portfolio.

Tim will leave us not because he wants to, but because, for economic reasons, he has to.

I think of Tim every time I read the mountains of reports being issued on teacher quality. Two reports issued this summer, "Days of Reckoning" from the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights and "Teaching Inequality" from The Education Trust, have chronicled how children in our poorest schools are taught by the "least qualified" teachers. But even these reports, valuable as they are, do not get at the real issues.

Over the past few years we have allowed an interesting definition to determine what it means to have a highly qualified teacher in a classroom. For the most part it simply means someone with the correct "certification;" but nothing ties certification to quality in the classroom.

Take John, for example. He teaches students with special needs, also at my high school. He also teaches college students in the evening and for over twenty years has been known as the "dean" of our special education staff. But because he didn't have a degree or teaching major in math (one of the fields in which he tutors students), he wasn't highly qualified. How did he fix that? By attending workshops that covered materials and methods he had used for years so he could get the right credential.

Making sure every teacher is credentialed is only a first step to improving our schools and insuring equity of educational resources for all children. Much more important is how we treat teachers once they are in the classroom.

The title of NY Times writer Michael Winerip's final education column sums up how many teachers feel: "Teachers, and a Law That Distrusts Them." The simple fact is this — while on one hand our leaders are calling for "highly qualified" teachers, on the other they are passing laws that demean the profession. Furthermore, we are doing little if anything to pay teachers appropriately or reward those that take on the toughest assignments.

This disrespect shows up in so many ways. For example, in Nebraska and Maine where teachers have carefully designed local assessments only to be told by the U.S. Department of Education they are out of compliance with NCLB. And in schools across the country teachers like Judith Lister talk about the micro-managing of her work to focus just on testing.

If America wants to get serious about having all of her children in schools with caring, talented, smart, and engaging adults, we need to do more than check credentials. We need to make sure teachers like Tim are shown the respect and are given the support they deserve. A good start would be the following:

• Increasing financial incentives to go into and stay in teaching, especially in our most demanding schools;
• Providing teachers with the authority to develop curriculum, standards, and assessments based on their professional expertise;
• Giving teachers access to and control over professional development that is geared toward enhancing instructional skills.

Tim needs his loans forgiven due to his commitment to a high school in a poor, rural community; he should be part of a network of teachers that are consulted on state educational policy; and he should be paid handsomely every summer to share his expertise with other teachers.

The Forum is committed to the promise of a public school system that provides every child with engaging and skilled teachers. And we work for the conditions that will help every teacher do his or her job well — the best way to insure student success.