EdTrust Slams States On HQT

While the House education committee is focusing on things like curriculum integration and (next week, apparently) the AYP loophole, the Ed Trust and others are ramping up on HQT. Their latest report, issued today, is called “Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality,” and its rollout includes an appearance from Cong. George Miller (big surprise, I know), and a statement from Barry (Barack) Obama. Says Obama. (I’m impressed -- I thought that Obama had signed on with the Jefferson Project guys.) Anyway, the report can be found at: http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/Press+Room/teacherquality2006

UPDATE: Once again taking a position on what I'd have to call the wrong side of the issue, AFT Michele gets all reactionary about the Trust's ideas for getting high quality teachers in front of kids. Come on, Michele. Kids first, remember?

UPDATE 2: There's even more mixed messaging in the official AFT statement on the report issued Friday by Antonia Cortese, which calls some of the EdTrust solutions "usubstantiated" and "unsupported".