This report presents 10 suggestions for what the U.S. Department of Education can do to help schools raise achievement for all students and close the achievement gap by increasing teacher quality: (1) make improving teacher quality job one; (2) insist on good data; (3) ensure that states make an immediate priority of fixing the indefensible distribution of under-qualified teachers to disadvantaged students; (4) help separate fact from fiction and dispel the myth that getting better teachers is an unattainable goal; (5) relieve some of the pressure on K-12 by putting greater pressure on higher education to increase its production of teachers in the areas of greatest need; (6) send clear, unequivocal signals that "highly qualified" means just that; (7) make clear that No Child Left Behind provides flexibility for schools, particularly those in small, rural communities, to hire and retain highly qualified teachers; (8) support parents' right to know; (9) embrace state efforts to develop real measures of teacher effectiveness; and (10) push for significant improvements to the Higher Education Act. (SM)