WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The majority of states are not doing enough to attract, screen, and retain qualified teachers in their public schools, according to a state-by-state report card released Wednesday by Education Week magazine.

In the fourth annual study released by the magazine, called Quality Counts 2000, not a single state earned an "A" for efforts to improve teacher quality. Four states received an "F." The study looks at data from 1999 as well as previous years for comparison.

Connecticut got top grades in the nation, earning a "B" for its teaching enhancement efforts, while North Carolina, South Carolina, and Oklahoma followed close behind. Idaho, Alaska, South Dakota and Wyoming all failed the test.

Experts, who focused on teacher quality, evaluated states' standards for hiring qualified teachers, which included competency tests, professional development, professional evaluation of new teachers, and pay and benefits.

Findings include:

Thirty-nine states require prospective teachers to pass a basic-skills test, but 36 of those states provide loopholes allowing teachers to continue teaching after failing the test.

Twenty-nine states require high school teachers to pass proficiency tests in the subjects they plan to teach, and 39 states require teachers to have a major or minor in that subject; but almost all of those states, except New Jersey, can waive that requirement and grant licenses anyway.

Fewer than half of the states require middle school teachers to earn licenses in the subjects they teach; only nine states require middle school teachers to pass tests in all the subjects they teach.

Only 27 states require principals to evaluate new teachers and only four of those states require a team from outside the school to evaluate new teachers.

Of the four states that failed, only Alaska requires teachers to take a basic skills test to earn a professional license.

On the financial side, the report found only two states, Maryland and Massachusetts, offer signing bonuses to lure young college graduates into the teaching profession.

The salary gap between teachers and other professionals continues to widen. From 1994 to 1998, the average salary for master's degree holders increased 32 percent or $17,505; but teachers with master's degrees were paid only $200 more in 1998 than in 1994. The report also found that in 1998, teachers aged 22 to 28 earn $7,894 less per year than those in other careers.

That gap is three times greater for teachers aged 44 to 50, who earn $23,655 less than other professionals.

The report also examined student performance on a state-by-state level. Only seven states posted significant gains from 1992 to 1998 in the percentage of fourth-graders reading at their grade level. Connecticut topped that list with 46 percent of fourth-graders reading at the national proficiency level; New Hampshire ranked second with 38 percent and Massachusetts third with 37 percent.

But states did earn better grades for establishing statewide student standards. Eleven states, including New Mexico, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Massachusetts, Virginia, Florida, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nevada were awarded A's for adopting clear standards in specific core subjects in 1999.

Only Iowa, which has yet to adopt state academic standards, received an "F."

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RELATED SITES:

Education Week
• Quality Counts 2000: Who Should Teach?
Investments for Improving Teaching
NCPA - Education - Measuring Performance
NBPTS - The National Board For Professional Teaching Standards

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