This working paper provides background for the U.S. Department of Education's first report to the nation on teacher quality, informing the ongoing work on state policy contexts for the improvement of teaching undertaken by the Center for the Study of Teacher Policy. The main goal is to illustrate the range of state-initiated actions aimed at improving the quality of teaching. Section 1 addresses state attention to educational reform and quality of teaching (recent focus on teaching quality, critical roles of states, and how states can promote teaching quality). Section 2 discusses how states are promoting visions of good teaching and learning (student standards and assessments, standards for teaching practice, and independent professional standards boards). Section 3 examines how states are attracting, rewarding, and retaining capable people in teaching (teacher recruitment needs, recruiting teachers and facilitating their mobility, ensuring teacher qualifications, using salaries to attract and retain teachers, and removing unqualified teachers). Section 4 discusses how states are improving the initial preparation and induction of teachers (standards and accountability, alternative certification, and beginning teacher induction programs). Section 5 looks at how states are motivating and supporting teachers' ongoing professional learning (differences in the quality of opportunities for professional learning, state guidance and resources for professional development, and developing or mandating specific targets for professional development). Section 6 discusses how states are enhancing the school workplace environment. (Contains 47 endnotes.) (SM)