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by Lewis C. Solmon, Tamara W. Schiff, The Milken Family Foundation (Editors)

2005 | This highly influential group of scholars and policy makers explain to parents, business leaders, and teachers themselves the importance

	PLEASE NOTE: Only one chapter of this publication is available for free download. To purchase the entire book, go to www.infoagepub.com/ www/products/product1/ Milken.htm.

In the early 1980s, Lowell Milken, chairman and co-founder of the Milken Family Foundation, created an awards program to acknowledge educators' crucial contributions to our national well-being. His belief was—and is—that one way to attract, retain, and motivate talented people to the teaching profession is to recognize and reward outstanding educators' achievements, enhance their resources and expand their professional influence and growth. For almost two decades the program, which is the largest teacher recognition program in the nation, has rewarded thousands of exemplary K-12 teachers, principals, counselors, librarians, and other specialists—each with an unrestricted financial prize of $25,000.

Award recipients are also invited to attend the Milken Family Foundation's annual National Education Conference where they have the opportunity to learn and participate in forums concerning critical educational issues, policies, and programs. The 2003 NEC, "Teacher Quality: Opportunities for Future Success," generated discussions on many of the critical issues relating to teacher quality. The resulting proceedings comprise the major portion of this book. In addition to the conference proceedings, we invited panelists to submit supplemental articles, adding greater depth to their examination of these teacher quality issues. Each chapter begins with the discussions from the conference and concludes with the companion articles.