Standards Boards Touted for Elevating Teaching Profession

Philip Metcalf, a mathematics teacher at Wawasee High School in Syracuse, Ind., believes the moment is ripe for his occupation to finally take its place as a true profession.

The vehicle for this transformation is the Indiana Professional Standards Board, created by the state legislature in 1992. As its chairman, Mr. Metcalf is helping to craft policies that promise to turn teaching from what he calls "an almost-profession" into a field guided by rigorous standards.

In its short life, Indiana's standards board has emerged as a leader in thinking through how teachers should be educated, mentored, licensed, and...