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Read President Obama's budget, and you'll get the distinct sense that alternative certification works and staff development doesn't. The first of these gets a big shot in the arm, and the second (Title II) suffers a pretty big blow. Get the right people into the schools, the thinking seems to go, and the rest will sort itself out. But reality is more complicated than that. All roads will take us back to staff development.

Critics argue that federal staff development dollars haven't done much good, so why keep them flowing? Much better to funnel them into alternatives. The critics have a point, or maybe half a point. We haven't gotten enough bang for our federal buck, so it's tough to justify calls for more Title II money unless we can show that we will spend the money well. Of course, alt cert programs haven't yet proven their worth either, but they're newer, some are promising, and none carry the taint of "status quo."

But it would be very wrong to turn our backs on staff development because it has so often been botched in practice. Stephanie Hirsh of the National Staff Development Council offers another path. She recently worked with a teacher leader to craft a message to Arne Duncan. The upshot of that message: Direct Title II dollars more wisely.

First, they write, tie the use of funds to a much stronger definition of professional learning. (NSDC's definition has won widespread support.) Then set aside funds to help teacher leaders and principals learn how to "build and support collaborative learning teams and communities." Finally, require hard-nosed evaluation of the money's impact.

As we consider the fate of Title II dollars, we can draw an important lesson from the charter school debate. Good charter schools work, and bad ones don't. The same goes for staff development. The challenge, then, is to ensure that money supports quality. Any innovation, no matter how cool or sexy, will founder on poor implementation.

No school--and no teachers--will get very far without strong and sustained staff development. So let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater.