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In Michigan, 98 percent of teachers were rated effective or better under new teacher-evaluation systems recently put in place. In Florida, 97 percent of teachers were deemed effective or better. Principals in Tennessee judged 98 percent of teachers to be "at expectations" or better last school year, while evaluators in Georgia gave good reviews to 94 percent of teachers taking part in a pilot evaluation program. The data are also raising new questions about the observation components of the systems, which tended to produce the highest scores. Dozens of states have taken steps in recent years to overhaul their teacher-evaluation systems, often in response to federal incentives. Such changes have also been promoted by an influential lineup of organizations that calls for greater accountability in the teaching profession. The states hope to use the systems to strengthen teaching practices and dismiss poorly performing teachers.

Slowly but surely, a growing number of states are eyeing policies to select academically stronger individuals for their teaching programs as one avenue to improve the quality of new teachers. Underneath the attention such plans are attracting, though, run deep-seated fears about their potential consequences--particularly whether they will result in a K-12 workforce with fewer black and Latino teachers. On nearly all the measures states are considering, from GPAs to licensure-test scores, minority candidates tend to have weaker scores than their white counterparts. The state action comes against the backdrop of a profession whose membership is already far less diverse than the students it serves. For state officials, the quandary poses a difficult and politically sensitive set of choices.

A handful of districts, some with the approval of their local teachers' unions, are experimenting with alternatives to the fundamental components that govern teachers' base-pay raises. Ranging from a long-standing plan in Eagle County, Colorado, to a contract ratified earlier this year by teachers in the Pittsburgh district, the systems tie raises more closely to classroom evaluations, rather than granting automatic increases for each year of service or the completion of an advanced degree. The moves have generated some strife as well. Eagle County officials overhauled their plan recently, and teachers in the 82,000-student Baltimore school system last month rejected a tentative contract that would have codified the changes to their pay system. This month, the city's teaching corps will weigh whether to accept a revised version. While it is probably too soon to determine whether such experimentation is indicative of a trend, other districts, such as Hillsborough County, Florida, have devised plans to move in a similar direction. And both publicly and privately financed grants, such as those from the Teacher Incentive Fund, the Race to the Top initiative, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching are prodding district action. Some scholars of teacher compensation welcome the experimentation as a chance to try out various alternatives for structuring pay in ways that better suit district needs. The goals of the new compensation plans are twofold: (1) to better align those dollars with goals for student achievement; and (2) to provide help for teachers to achieve the goals.

This article reports on how states strive to overhaul their teacher tenure policies. Over the past year, a handful of states have begun to overhaul their tenure-granting processes by increasing the number of years it takes teachers to win due process rights, and by trying to improve the evaluations that are supposed to guide determinations of whether a teacher qualifies for the benchmark. The recent efforts differ in several ways from prior waves of reform. With the lone exception of Florida, the states seek to change the tenure-granting process, rather than abolish it. The revisions are also being coupled with movements to tie tenure to student academic achievement, reflecting an increased emphasis in national policy circles on the importance of gauging teachers' impact on student learning. The mechanisms through which the states are approaching changes to their tenure policies differ. While Ohio has delayed the time it takes to earn the right to due process, Delaware will tie it to student achievement, and Florida is poised to abolish it.