This digest in Spanish examines peer review, focusing on how these types of reviews can improve teacher competence. Peer review is often linked to peer assistance, which helps new and veteran teachers improve their knowledge and skills. In peer-review programs, consulting teachers conduct formal evaluations and recommend whether the participating teacher should be retained or let go. Programs in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio, have shown that peer review not only helps schools retain teachers, it also provides ongoing evaluations for teachers. Some of the potential benefits of peer review include more teachers receiving help and more incompetent teachers being dismissed. Under peer review, teachers take a more active role in their progression, and teachers and principals can become allies in improving teaching standards. However, critics of peer review say that it presents legal problems for local union affiliates in that consulting teachers could be classified as supervisors and thus lose their bargaining-unit status. Those opposing peer review also claim that it does not address the real problems that lie behind teacher quality. Overall, the future of peer review remains uncertain; currently, only a handful of districts practice peer review, making it difficult to draw conclusions. (RJM)