Linda Darling-Hammond and Gary Sykes have issued a call for a "national teacher supply policy." Without systematic intervention from Washington, the authors warn that states and districts are unlikely to solve their shortages in certain subject areas and the inequitable distribution of good teachers. Not surprisingly, some alternative certification routes (particularly Teach For America) get badly criticized by being labeled as "quick-fix" solutions to a problem that demands an organized national response.

The authors recommend that a national policy should consist of the following:

• Consolidate federal scholarship and loan forgiveness programs to better target both distribution and subject area shortages.
• Offer grants to urban universities and districts to get them to mirror Teach For America's recruitment savvy (TFA does get some credit) but only if implemented with a sustained training program (e.g. practice teaching in professional development schools.)
• Offer a targeted, matching grant program to help states and districts offer good new teacher induction programs (e.g. ones that provide in-classroom support.)
• Conduct more research to bolster tenable solutions to low teacher pay that don't get rid of the single salary schedule, such as significant bonuses for National Board certified teachers, special housing, more medical/life benefits, travel for professional development, and transportation allowances. The authors dismiss performance pay as ineffective.

A call for a national solution to the problem of teacher supply raises some questions. The feds have stuck their toes in the water with the teacher quality provisions of No Child Left Behind; it remains to be seen whether they'll want to yank them back out or keep pressing on. Districts are localized markets with localized problems; a national solution may be too blunt a tool to do any good. The New Teacher Project report released last week illustrates this problem in spades documenting how urban school districts consistently squander opportunities to hire great teachers.