Modernizing and Elevating the Teaching Profession

The Center for American Progress recognizes that no education reform effort can be successful without teachers. High-quality teaching is essential to all efforts to improve students’ learning and has the greatest impact for students who are mostly likely to start school behind their peers academically. For too long, teachers have been an afterthought, underpaid and undervalued. We are working to modernize and elevate the teaching profession so that teachers receive the training, pay, and respect they deserve, and every student has access to high-quality teachers.

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Understanding the Basics of Child Care in the United States Article
Children sit on the rug at the TLC for Tots daycare center in Nampa, Idaho, November 20, 2024.

Understanding the Basics of Child Care in the United States

The United States needs real solutions at all levels of government, coupled with robust public investment, to build a child care and early learning system that works for children, families, educators, and providers.

The Early Childhood Policy Team

Teacher Preparation Shortcuts Won’t Solve the Teacher Shortage Article
Photo shows an empty classroom with chairs stacked on top of the desks.

Teacher Preparation Shortcuts Won’t Solve the Teacher Shortage

Recently passed legislation that reduces training requirements for teachers will harm student learning, weaken the profession, and ignore the systemic issues that have long contributed to teacher shortages.

Loren Welles

The Alternative Teacher Certification Sector Outside Higher Education Report
Photo shows a group of adults seated around tables in a classroom.

The Alternative Teacher Certification Sector Outside Higher Education

Enrollment continues to grow in alternative teacher certification programs operated outside of colleges, but the number of students completing these programs is declining.

Jacqueline E. King, Jessica Yin

Fact Sheet: Targeted Grants for Educational Excellence Program Fact Sheet
 (An educator teaches integrated math at a high school in Pasadena, California, April 2021.)

Fact Sheet: Targeted Grants for Educational Excellence Program

This fact sheet outlines the details of a proposed grant program that would increase recruitment and retention of highly qualified educators in schools with the highest teacher turnover.

Bayliss Fiddiman, Lisette Partelow

How To Ensure Equitable Access to Great Teaching Report
 (The Los Angeles Unified School District interim superintendent spends time with a kindergarten student to celebrate the first day of in-class instruction at an elementary school in Los Angeles, August 2021.)

How To Ensure Equitable Access to Great Teaching

The Center for American Progress proposes a new grant program to address the working conditions that contribute to job dissatisfaction and high turnover among the nation’s K-12 teachers in order to increase equal access to highly qualified teachers.

Bayliss Fiddiman, Lisette Partelow

Remote Learning and School Reopenings: What Worked and What Didn’t Report
 (A high school freshman returns to campus for the first time since schools closed due to the coronavirus, as students return for in-person instruction at a high school in Long Beach, California, March 2021.)

Remote Learning and School Reopenings: What Worked and What Didn’t

As the United States recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and schools return to in-person learning in the fall, it is key that educators learn from the successes of the past year and avoid making the same mistakes.

Megan Ferren

The Education Data That Matter Most to Parents and School Stakeholders Report

The Education Data That Matter Most to Parents and School Stakeholders

The current K-12 accountability system provides important information for education leaders, but local school communities need access to other timely and useful data to help improve the quality of education each child receives.

Jamil Modaffari, Laura Jimenez

A First 100 Days Agenda for K-12 Education Report
 (A school bus drives down a street in Waitsfield, Vermont, February 2013.)

A First 100 Days Agenda for K-12 Education

The next presidential administration must take immediate, bold action to provide a quality education for every child.

Scott Sargrad, Khalilah M. Harris, Lisette Partelow, 2 More Neil Campbell, Laura Jimenez

Successful Implementation of High-Quality Instructional Materials Report
Teachers gather for a training session at SATO Academy of Math and Science in Long Beach, California, as they get ready for the first day of school. (Getty/Brittany Murray)

Successful Implementation of High-Quality Instructional Materials

Numerous studies underscore the effects of high-quality curricula on student achievement, but to achieve the intended goal of adopting such curricula, careful attention must be paid to the implementation process.

Amanda Fuchs Miller, Lisette Partelow

Student Debt: An Overlooked Barrier to Increasing Teacher Diversity Report
A principal visits a classroom at a New Orleans elementary school, January 2015. (Getty/Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor)

Student Debt: An Overlooked Barrier to Increasing Teacher Diversity

Black and Latinx students’ disparate experiences with student loan debt compared with their white counterparts may affect their choice to enter or stay in the teaching profession.

Bayliss Fiddiman, Colleen Campbell, Lisette Partelow

A Quality Education for Every Child Report
Fifth and sixth grade students warm up for class at an elementary school in Washington, D.C., October 2012. (Getty/The Washington Post/Astrid Riecken)

A Quality Education for Every Child

The time is now for policymakers to take a bold and comprehensive approach to K-12 education.

Scott Sargrad, Khalilah M. Harris, Lisette Partelow, 2 More Neil Campbell, Laura Jimenez

Strikes Driving Change in States With Lowest-Paid Teachers Article
Striking teachers and their supporters rally in downtown Los Angeles on the second day of this year's teachers strike, January 2019. (Getty/Robyn Beck)

Strikes Driving Change in States With Lowest-Paid Teachers

In states with the lowest teacher pay, teacher protests have been common, as has legislative action to increase salaries.

Lisette Partelow, Abby Quirk

Homework and Higher Standards Report
A teenager helps her younger sister complete her math homework at their Denver home, January 2018. (Getty/The Denver Post/AAron Ontiveroz)

Homework and Higher Standards

CAP analysis found that homework is generally aligned to Common Core State Standards, but additional policy changes would make it more valuable.

Ulrich Boser, Meg Benner, John Smithson

11 Ways New Governors Can Lead on Education Through Executive Actions Report
A kindergarten teacher in Los Angeles uses an electric heater for her classroom; the school's air conditioning and heating system has been out of service for more than a year. (Getty/Rick Meyer)

11 Ways New Governors Can Lead on Education Through Executive Actions

From teacher pay to school infrastructure to workforce readiness, new governors should move quickly to advance key education priorities in their states.

Scott Sargrad, Lisette Partelow, Jessica Yin

Curriculum Reform in the Nation’s Largest School Districts Report

Curriculum Reform in the Nation’s Largest School Districts

This report provides an analysis of the instructional materials used by the 30 largest school districts in the country.

Lisette Partelow, Sarah Shapiro

How to Give Teachers a $10,000 Raise Report
Teachers don red and march around the capitol grounds en masse during a teachers rally for more educational funding at the Colorado State Capitol, April 27, 2018. (Getty/The Denver Post/AAron Ontiveroz)

How to Give Teachers a $10,000 Raise

Because teachers’ compensation should reflect the importance of their work, CAP proposes a $10,000 federal Teacher Tax Credit that would increase pay for eligible teachers in high-poverty schools.

Meg Benner, Erin Roth, Stephenie Johnson, 1 More Kate Bahn

7 Great Education Policy Ideas for Progressives in 2018 Report
A Philadelphia middle school student carries a stack of books from class, May 2016. (Getty/The Washington Post/Nikki Kahn)

7 Great Education Policy Ideas for Progressives in 2018

A progressive education policy agenda should focus on putting economic mobility and opportunity within reach for all.

Lisette Partelow, Catherine Brown, Sarah Shapiro, 1 More Stephenie Johnson

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