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With state and national policymakers eyeing ways to improve teacher preparation, a handful of education programs are becoming more intentional about how such "cooperating" teachers--as they're known in the lingo of teacher preparation--are selected and trained. That interest could grow as programs wrestle with the finer points of how to transform student-teaching from a haphazard, sometimes hastily tacked-on experience to the central component of preparation. The challenges seem to begin with the selection of cooperating teachers, a process that is often left to districts. There are other obstacles, too. For cooperating teachers, the rewards for taking on a teacher-candidate are generally paltry, and new teacher-related policies have added wrinkles: A nationwide push to make teacher evaluation more rigorous, sometimes using test scores as a factor, has made teachers hesitant to invite novices into their classrooms, educators say.

Education programs across 19 states are piloting a performance-based assessment for teacher-candidates that potentially could serve as a common prelicensing measure for new teachers. Based on a test in use in about 30 education schools in California, the Teacher Performance Assessment includes a "teaching event" requiring teachers to extensively document and submit for review artifacts of their planning, instruction, and ability to assess and respond to student needs. Five of the states taking part in the work-- Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington--have committed in legislation to use a performance-based licensing test, and officials have signed memoranda of understanding agreeing to adopt the assessment if it proves to be technically valid and reliable. Supporters of the initiative see in the work an opportunity to focus on classroom-based effectiveness at the precertification benchmark--an area that has not received much attention as policymakers tackle the tenure-granting and annual evaluation processes.

Teachers' unions in at least two states are threatening to withhold endorsements of their states' Race to the Top applications, which could jeopardize the states' chances of winning the coveted federal dollars. In a letter printed as an advertisement in the Tallahassee Democrat, Florida Education Association President Andy J. Ford discouraged local union affiliates from signing an agreement to implement a state plan that, among other provisions, would require districts to base teacher evaluations and compensation bonuses heavily on student test scores. The president of Education Minnesota, Thomas A. Dooher, said he will also advise local affiliates not to sign off on the state application unless officials there agree to changes, including dropping a requirement that participating districts implement a pay program that has been voluntary for districts. The Race to the Top program, part of the economic-stimulus legislation passed last year, has been problematic for the national teachers' unions because of its heavy emphasis on using student test scores to measure teacher effectiveness. Now the action has moved to the state and local levels, as states prepare applications for the Jan. 19 deadline for the first round of funding. The $4 billion program is forcing states to engage in a delicate balancing act of aggressively pursuing the money while keeping support from state and local union affiliates. The Race to the Top initiative requires states to take action around four broad "assurances" in the stimulus legislation, including ensuring effective teachers in all classrooms. The largest percentage of points--138 out of 500--will be awarded to states that overhaul their teacher-quality systems, in part by evaluating teachers annually and tying the results to how teachers are compensated, granted tenure, and promoted. Under Minnesota's proposed application, districts participating in the Race to the Top would adopt the Q Comp program, a school-reform approach that includes professional development, annual teacher evaluations, a career-ladder initiative, and an alternative salary schedule based partly on student performance. The voluntary program allows local districts to bargain what percent of the pay component is based on measures of student growth.