The "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: state government. This Kansas edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the first of what will be an annual look at the status of state policies impacting the teaching profession. It is hoped that this report will help focus attention on areas where state policymakers could make improvements to benefit both students and teachers. This policy evaluation is broken down into six areas that include a total of 27 goals. Broadly, these goals examine the impact of state policy on the preparation, certification, licensure, compensation and effectiveness of teachers across the elementary, secondary and special education spectra. Kansas' progress toward meeting these goals is summarized on the following page. Overall, Kansas lags behind most other states in implementing teacher-related policy. Kansas completely missed 11 goals, met a small portion of seven, partially met six, nearly met two and fully met only one. Kansas' best performance is in Area 1, "Meeting NCLB Teacher Quality Objectives;" however, there is still significant room for improvement in that area. The state has considerable work to do in all other areas. The state deserves credit for its policy requiring elementary special education teachers to be dually certified in elementary education. Kansas, however, should articulate more explicit standards for special education preparation programs and ensure they provide an efficient program of study. The body of the report provides a more detailed breakdown of the state's strengths and weaknesses in each area. Detailed rationale and "Food for Thought" for each area and corresponding goal are appended. (Contains 71 figures) [Additional funding for this first edition of the "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" was provided by the Achelis Foundation, Bodman Foundation, Daniel's Fund, Fly Foundation, Gleason Foundation, and The Teaching Commission. This state report is part of NCTQ's State Teacher Policy Yearbook series. For the national summary, see ED506661.]