This article by Grover J. Whitehurst, Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement, is from a White House Conference on Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers. Dr. Whitehurst's assignment for this conference was to examine and report on research related to the preparation and professional development of teachers.

Margaret Spelling, Secretary of Education, shares a revised and expanded version of the Highly Qualified Teachers and Improving Teacher Quality State Grants Non-Regulatory Guidance. While this revised guidance does not depart significantly from the previous version, it introduces new questions and expands others. Many of these changes, including new policies pertaining to teachers in rural districts, science teachers, and teachers of multiple subjects, were made in response to feedback from Teacher Assistance Corps (TAC) and monitoring visits. The Guidance also includes new questions on highly qualified teacher flexibility policies, revisions to and expansions of answers to several questions, revisions to the deadline by which paraprofessionals must become highly qualified, and new information on highly qualified special education teachers that results from the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA.