There are selected individuals and groups who are critical of the master's degree in education. They believe that a teacher securing the degree does not result in improved public school instruction. Secretary of Education Ame Duncan, among others, has come out strongly against the master's degree in education. He maintains it cannot be shown that having the advanced degree makes for a better classroom teacher. This is indeed difficult to measure with many variables entering into the equation. For example, those who emphasize testing pupils who are taught with a master's degree will not achieve any more than those pupils taught by teachers without a master's degree. This has never been substantiated and there are too many extraneous factors involved such as quality of pupils in one group as compared to the other and/or