Teacher preparation and licensing are constantly under attack from both national and state policy makers. The extraordinary reporting requirements imposed on university-based teacher preparation programs through Title II of the Higher Education Act and the promotion of "alternative routes" to teacher licensure by the federal government…

The teaching profession must be allowed some measure of self-governance in order to become responsive to the needs of both the public welfare and the individual practitioner. (JH)

The Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission is helping teachers move toward professional governance. (IRT)

Suggests that teachers establish educational achievement expectations for their students, that administrators review these expectations for appropriateness, and that teachers who exceed reasonable expectations be rewarded from special state-disbursed supplemental funds. (PGD)

As an introduction to the symposium, Unfinished Business of the Teaching Profession," this article provides a framework for viewing contemporary criticism of the public schools and the teaching profession. (JH)

Describes problems related to two approaches to teacher-centered school reform: Wholesale restructuring and incremental modification. (PKP)

The licensing of teachers should be modeled against professions similar to teaching rather than professions like medicine and architecture that are vastly different. Applying similar licensing practices can raise the status of teaching. Ignoring these licensing practices will prevent teachers from functioning as professionals. (MD)

Reviews the positions of the National Education Association on merit pay and on establishment of independent teacher certification boards and explains how those positions contrast with Myron Lieberman's proposal (EA 519 376) for the creation of national educational specialty boards to recognize outstanding teaching. (PGD)

Reflects on the positive merits of the educational specialty board concept discussed by Myron Lieberman (EA 519 376) and urges further development of the concept, but also argues that Lieberman's proposal has little relation to merit pay and that the merit pay connection should be dropped. (PGD)

Poses an extended list of practical questions left unanswered by Myron Lieberman in his proposal (EA 519 376) for the creation of educational specialty boards to recognize outstanding teachers. (PGD)

Examines the evidence establishing that teaching is a semiprofession and looks at the reasons for this in the conditions of the workplace and in the way these conditions have been set by the state and by local districts. (IRT)

Argues that how teachers feel about themselves professionally stems from the education profession itself--from the way it recognizes high achievement, the way it prepares teachers for their profession, what it expects from teachers in schools, and the role of teachers in educational research and development. (Author)

Failures in the university-public school partnership to raise student academic achievement in disadvantaged areas is attributed to faculties that hold diametrically opposed views regarding both the dimensions of the problem and the basic aims and objectives of education. (MF)