From the Sputnik Era in the late 1950's to the Accountability Era in the early 2000, reform measures for public education from the federal level to the local level have failed to improve both student achievement and teacher quality across the nation. Raising student achievement begins with raising the quality of teachers, and raising the quality of teachers begins with raising the standards for the professional development of the K-12 public education teacher. Blueprints for a quality professional development program tied to student achievement can be found in the language of federal education legislation, in scientific research, and in reports by education and business think tanks. This dissertation asks how and why federal legislation, state regulations, and local policies have not led to raising teacher quality through authentic, accurate and appropriate professional development of the K-12 public education teachers in preparation for practice and in continued practice. The purpose of this study is to trace the history of teacher quality in the nation from the beginnings of public education through today with a closer examination of how the teaching criteria have evolved through time. It is an ideal to examine every event, its causes and effects; what was possible was an examination of major events using a time line method as a basis for exploring intertwining variables that directly and indirectly led to causes and effects in public education and its teachers. Data reveals the possibility that teacher criteria have been systemically kept low in order that student achievement is kept low. The status quo in both student achievement and teacher quality since the early 1900s was and continues to be the ruling class's goal in keeping certain populations (amongst the masses) in their desired economic state.