In a recent interview with TIME magazine, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan touched on what may be the most difficult piece of the education puzzle, getting the best teachers in the classroom.  In particular, he question the barrier presented by the standards of "certified" and "qualified", raising the point that ultimately student achievement is all that matters.

It is one thing to evaluate teachers as they teach, which we surely must do as matter of good management practice, be that by qualitative assessment, quantitative analysis, or both.  But those are lagging indicators of success that require years of students' lives to pass in the meantime, potentially lost years under ineffective teachers from which they may never fully recover. 

We must also be better about putting (allowing?) the right people in the classroom to being with.  This begs the question. what are the leading indicators of teacher effectiveness?  What tells us that a teacher is likely to be successful?  Surely being qualified (that is, having an advanced degree in the subject matter being taught) isn't sufficient, given that being an effective education requires a skill set beyond subject matter expertise.  Duncan suggests that the standard process for certification isn't enough, either.  Bad teachers get certified, while potentially effective educators are unable to teach due to a lack of official certification.

Finding the right set of leading indicators for teacher effectiveness will be absolutely critical in fixing our country's education system.