The American Federal of Teachers' president, Albert Ahanker, advocates forming a board of leading educators to develop a national qualifying examination of those newly entering the teaching profesion. The test would cover subject matter knowledge and instructional potential. Public pressure would ensure that states and districts adopted the…

A school can assemble a winning teaching team by taking lessons from sports talent recruitment programs. Schools should search for early talent and ask education professors to identify promising student teachers. Contracts should be offered immediately to final round draft choices. (CJH)

Reports on the 1985 convention of the National Education Association noting changes in the group's politics and its efforts to present a more moderate image. One event during the convention was a march on the South African Embassy protesting apartheid. (MD)

Effective teacher evaluation programs save school boards money, time, and aggravation. When necessary after initial evaluations, principals can help teachers remedy performance problems by mutually redefining job duties and responsibilities, agreeing on acceptable performance levels, comparing teacher accomplishments with predetermined standards,…

A union leader relates his experience with the Toledo, Ohio, plan for identifying and dismissing incompetent teachers. Principals and supervisors resisted the peer review system at first, but later changed their minds because of its success. (TE)

School boards have the power to restore quality in teaching. Four areas that call for unremitting attention are teacher compensation, educational leadership, termination of incompetent teachers, and teacher education. (MLF)

Briefly outlines five ways to ensure accountability: scrutinize student achievement, conduct surveys of teacher and community attitudes toward district performance, carefully review how funds are spent, ask administrators to look closely at programs, and evaluate administrators and teachers regularly. (Author/JM)