The shortage of highly qualified teachers is a national crisis. While efforts are underway to increase the number of people entering the profession, recruitment is only part of the problem since almost 50% of teachers leave before their sixth year. Teacher shortages cannot be effectively alleviated unless teacher attrition is reduced. To do this, state policymakers and education leaders must address the reasons teachers leave the profession and primary among these is working conditions.

Under the leadership of the 2006-08 chair, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, the Education Commission of the States has launched Great Teachers for Tomorrow, an initiative with the goal of increasing teacher retention through improvement of working conditions. Through this initiative ECS will provide policymakers and practitioners with the resources, information and tools they need to address this challenge in their states, districts and schools.

The goals of Great Teachers for Tomorrow include:

• Raising national awareness of what constitutes a good school and what will help high quality teachers stay in the profession
  
• Delineating issues of working conditions that can be affected by quality state policy and district- and school-level practice
  
• Providing state policymakers and education leaders with the resources and assistance they need to make these conditions a reality
  
• Making clear the strong interconnection between quality teachers and quality leaders, and providing resources and information on leadership qualities related to the creation and maintenance of positive school environments
  
• Providing opportunities for state policymakers and education leaders to come together and learn about these issues and from each other in Leadership Forums, which will have two primary goals:
  
  • To advance participants' knowledge on the issues involved in quality working conditions
  • To help provide skills needed to design and implement quality policy to create and support positive school environments.

Additional information about the Great Teachers for Tomorrow initiative will be posted on this site as it becomes available.