On their own, a number of stories this week are not overly remarkable, but together they reveal the shifting terrain in how teachers are being trained and licensed.

An LA Times editorial writes about the much ballyhooed High Tech High in San Diego which began certifying its own teachers this fall, making it the only school in California empowered to train and certify its own teachers (and surely one of the few in the country). New teachers take coursework on the weekends and after 14 months are fully credentialed to teach anywhere in California.

And Pennsylvania's state school board is now allowing teachers to freshen up their certification status by taking one of the new online courses being offered by the U.S. Department of Education. That decision had to have raised the ire of the state's colleges of education who just a year ago successfully persuaded state officials that any new teachers coming through ABCTE, the new national certification program, would have to sign up for in-state coursework.

As the Sunshine State braces for what looks to be a teacher shortage of monumental proportions, Florida's new Education Commissioner, John Winn, is inviting any college or university in the state, regardless of whether they have a college of education, to house the state's new ?Educator Preparation Institutes.? These institutes will serve as fast track training facilities for new teachers lacking ed degrees.