I agree that a mistake that has been made has been to force teachers to get graduate degrees and largely incentivize that they earn their master's degree in edu

I agree that a mistake that has been made has been to force teachers to get graduate degrees and largely incentivize that they earn their master's degree in education. It would be more valuable if they received a master's or doctoral degree in literally anything else. The problem is that measuring the efficacy of a teacher is a dubious task. What would probably work the best is to incentivize teachers to get advanced degrees outside of the field of education by providing a substantial pay increase upon completion. Right now it is actually harder to get a degree in a field outside of education because in many districts you would need explicit permission from a supervisor to be reimbursed for a non-education degree versus an education degree that requires no permissions for reimbursement. An advanced degree does not make a great teacher, but it does provide some solid foundational knowledge.