Reaction to President Bush's teacher improvements.

President Bush wants to improve teacher quality and rigor in American classrooms under the No Child Left Behind law.

The nation s teacher unions-the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association-agree that teacher quality needs to improve but believe Bush's ideas are off.

"There has to be more support for new teachers, induction programs, and improvements for professional development for all teachers," says Joel Packer of the NEA.

Updating school facilities, creating smaller classes by hiring more teachers and providing newer textbooks are important for learning, but not all are federal or money issues, he says. "But the federal government can and should do more on that," he says.

The idea of merit pay, NEA and AFT agree, is tricky because it can be limited by money or subjectivity on the part of administrators. "Second, it does work against collaboration," Packer says. And he explains that one school in a district might have more limited English students over another, making it tougher for some teachers.

Beth Antunez, assistant director in educational issues at AFT, adds that a national program seems to lack parameters or restrictions.

And Packer says that every teacher must be licensed or fully certified to teach, so bringing in math and science professionals won't be necessarily enough to teach math and science well.

And as for more testing in high school, Packer says there isn't enough money to pay for it. But high school does need smaller learning communities, dropout prevention programs and more career and college counselors. "Laying out more tests is not doing anything to improve instruction," Antunez adds.

Bush's Teacher Quality Ideas Include:

* Encouraging math and science professionals to work as part-time teachers, with Congress funding it, in an Adjunct Teacher Corps;

* Getting Congress to pass a $1.5 billion plan to fund testing early in high school;

* Training 70,000 teachers over five years to lead Advanced Placement classes;

* Sponsoring a Teacher Incentive

Fund that allows states and districts to reward teachers who demonstrate results for students and teach in the neediest schools. A $5.5 million grant recently went to Ohio to reward effective teaching.