In July 2004, the Joyce Foundation awarded a two-year grant to the Council of Chief State School Officers to establish a State Teacher Quality Network. The purpose of this network is to help state education agencies analyze, plan, and implement strategies to strengthen teacher quality, particularly in high-poverty, low-performing schools. The grant enables CCSSO to carry out four main activities. The first two activities serve all states, while the second two target a subset of states.

1. Publish and disseminate a free, bi-weekly Teacher Quality and Improvement electronic newsletter to provide information to all states about recent reports, studies, legislative action, and news articles related to teacher quality and improvement efforts.
2. Produce and disseminate policy analyses and issue briefs to help state and local policymakers make informed decisions about the relative merits of various strategies to improve teacher quality, and to identify barriers that hinder state and district efforts to attract and retain effective teachers in high-poverty, low-performing schools.
3. Establish a State Teacher Quality Network and convene an annual meeting in Washington, DC, to provide opportunities for states to develop common solutions to teacher quality implementation challenges and to highlight innovative programs and successful implementation strategies. Thirty-seven states and jurisdictions are members of the network.
4. Provide customized technical assistance support to Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin, the Joyce Foundation's three priority states.

State Members

Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas Connecticut Georgia Hawaii Illinois Indiana

Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Massachusetts Michigan Mississippi Nebraska Nevada

New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota

Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin

Staff Contact

Cynthia Prince, Project Director, 202-312-6868, cindyp@ccsso.org