About the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future

Teaching for America’s Future:
A Challenge to the Nation

Setting the Agenda on Teaching Quality
For more than a decade, NCTAF has been a leading voice on what matters most for student learning: quality teaching in schools organized for success. To close the student achievement gap, we must close the teaching quality gap in high-priority schools and disciplines. NCTAF calls on policymakers and education leaders to provide every child in America with 21st century teaching.

Taking Action on NCTAF’s Agenda
NCTAF works through partnerships with national organizations, policymakers, state agencies, school districts, business leaders, and the higher education community to raise awareness, mobilize stakeholders, and strengthen policies to improve teaching quality. NCTAF supports quality teaching through analysis, advocacy, action, and alliances:

• Analysis: NCTAF conducts research and synthesizes findings that answer policy questions and contribute to constructive action steps to improve teaching quality. NCTAF’s findings are regularly cited in reports and policy papers of other leading education organizations. The most frequently cited reports include: 1) What Matters Most; 2) No Dream Denied; 3) Fifty Years After Brown v. Board of Education; 4) Induction into Learning Communities; and 5) Building a 21st Century Education System, which have been the subject of hundreds of news articles, radio interviews, and public television broadcasts.

• Advocacy: NCTAF convenes policy forums, hosts national summits and issues policy papers that inform, educate and build momentum around effective action strategies for improving teaching quality. NCTAF’s positions and recommendations are featured at national and state-level conferences, broadcast in the mass media and are the frequent topic of op-eds, letters to the editor, commentaries and news reports. NCTAF’s recommendations have shaped dozens of pieces of federal and state legislation – including provisions of NCLB, and the proposed amendments of the Higher Education Act. NCTAF produces a weekly News Digest, distributed electronically to over 3,000 education leaders and policymakers. This digest highlights news articles, research, legislation and policy initiatives that are targeted on teaching quality improvements.

• Action: NCTAF creates demonstration sites to develop and refine cutting-edge teaching quality initiatives. Working strategically with key partners, NCTAF develops projects that demonstrate new models which can be scaled up and adopted into state policy. Our projects cover a range of topics including teacher preparation, mentoring and induction, learning communities, online learning and more.

• Alliances: NCTAF partners with coalitions in 25 states and an expanding cluster of school districts. State and local leaders who combine their voice with NCTAF’s national advocacy agenda create a strong platform and powerful impetus for teaching quality improvement. NCTAF convenes these partner coalitions at an annual National Symposium, which enables teams of state legislators, Governors’ staff, chief state school officers, teacher leaders, leading researchers, high education leaders and K-12 faculty to share best practices, effective policies and lessons learned.

NCTAF National Leadership
NCTAF is co-chaired by Richard W. Riley, former U.S. Secretary of Education, and Ted Sanders, past President of the Education Commission of the States. Founded in 1994 at Teachers College (Columbia University), NCTAF became a non-profit research advocacy organization based in Washington, DC in 2002. Thomas G. Carroll, Ph.D. is President of NCTAF.

NCTAF State Coalitions
NCTAF works with state-level coalitions to implement policies and programs that ensure every student has access to quality teaching. This growing network includes: Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

NCTAF Strategic Partners
NCTAF has been fortunate to enjoy generous support from the following philanthropic organizations, corporate sponsors, and government agencies: Atlantic Philanthropies, AT&T Foundation, Bell South Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, FIPSE, Ford Foundation, Goldman Sachs Foundation, Joyce Foundation, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Microsoft Partners in Learning, National Evaluation Services, National Science Foundation, NEA Foundation, Pearson, Rockefeller Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Texas Instruments, Wachovia Foundation, Washington Mutual, and Teachers College at Columbia University.