The U.S. Department of Education announced a series of proposals today that it says will strengthen teacher preparation, including linking student test scores back to teachers and the programs that produced them, offering more money for teaching scholarships and expanding efforts to create more minority teachers. Details in the department's plan here.

Writes Education Secretary Arne Duncan in the foreword: While there are many beacons of excellence, unfortunately some of our existing teacher preparation programs are not up to the job. They operate partially blindfolded, without access to data that tells them how effective their graduates are in elementary and secondary school classrooms after they leave their teacher preparation programs. Too many are not attracting top students, and too many states are not setting a high bar for entry into the profession. Critical shortage areas like science, technology, engineering, math, and special education are going unfilled. And too few teacher preparation programs offer the type of rigorous, clinical experience that prepares future teachers for the realities of today’s diverse classrooms.