RE: Question 1: Attracting and Retaining Teachers

I understand the frustration often voiced by teachers that they should be treated as professionals and not told what and how to teach.  I want to agree with part of that statement and disagree with part of it.  I agree that teachers should not be told how to teach; that's what they went through professional preparation programs for.  However, I firmly believe that the state should tell them what should be taught in public schools.  Part of the difficulty I see from reviewing learning outcomes data from the past 20 years is that different expectations about what students should be taught or were capable of learning has generated very different levels of student achievement.  I think the state should say clearly that we have a common expectation of what students should be taught in public schools and at what level students should demonstrate mastery and then leave the details about how to achieve this expectation to the education professionals who work directly with students and parents.