This audacious goal is taken right from the opening pages of the report of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF)—What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future. The NCTAF findings are so powerful and unique that The Politics of Teacher Association (PTA) uses them as the basis for this 2000 Y=yearbook.

Editors Gallagher and Bailey, along with leading educators, explore the controversies and ramifications of the Commission's major recommendations:

• Get serious about standards—for both students and teachers
• Reinvent teacher preparation and professional development
• Overhaul teacher recruitment and put qualified teachers in every classroom
• Encourage and reward teaching knowledge and skill
• Create schools that are organized for student and teacher success

The contributors to this book speak to the underlying assumptions, research bases, and values found in the recommendations. Long-time and persistent issues about teaching, teacher education programs, and public policy making are examined under the new light of the latest research. Real-life successes of the recommendations in action are shown in two state-level stories and an urban school partnership.

This PEA 2000 yearbook will prove a valuable resource for students, researchers, and all educators interested in teacher education reform in the 21^st century.