Bipartisan Commission: Time to Upgrade, Modernize Teaching Profession Is Now

As Teaching Commission Closes Doors as Planned, It Issues Barely Passing Grades; Final Report Points to Significant Gains, Unfinished Business
March 22, 2006

WASHINGTON, DC – The Teaching Commission, the non-profit advocacy organization founded by former IBM chairman and CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., this morning released a final report urging state and local leaders to go "far further, far faster" in transforming the teaching profession. The message comes as the Commission ends its work on schedule, three years after its inception.

"If teaching remains a second-rate profession, America's economy will be driven by second-rate skills," said Gerstner. "We can wake up today-or we can have a rude awakening sooner than we think."