The Opportunities for Change Today

With the creation and integration of NCLB (2001), President Barack Obama’s decision to sign into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on February 17, 2009, which provided about “$100 billion to the U.S. Department of Education with the initial goal of delivering emergency education funding to states,” (Department of Education, 2009) and the commencement of Race to the Top on November 12, 2009, the U.S. government’s focus on creating quality education has augmented.  For several years, researchers have deemed that the most important in-school factor that affects the achievement of students is highly qualified and effective teachers.  With this acknowledgement, the most recent form of receiving funding for education is through Race to the Top, which among five requirements entails that a state has to be actively “[a]ttracting and keeping great teachers and leaders in America’s classrooms” (Race to the Top Factsheet, 2009).

In order to recruit more quality teachers is it necessary to re-examine the current teacher certification process by changing, revising, and developing new and innovative ways that will help produce successful classroom teachers.  This section will focus on the contemporary politics that surround Massachusetts’ initial certification process to produce quality teachers, and the recommendations for effective change will be discussed in Section Four.