Tag Archives: teacher professionalism

Testing Wags the Dog and Other Tales of Unintended Consequence

Summary: Testing in schools has taken its impetus from corporate measurement, and has a place. But the steps taken to assess skills have altered classroom chemistry and in the end may have retarded the very progress the tools have been … Continue reading

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School Reform, Politics, and Culture: Can We Performance Base Ourselves to the Promised Land?

Summary: Enshrining performance and research based thinking deeply into school reform, and investing accordingly, will invite best practices, promote better life success for students, and in the long run restrict the body of poor outcomes – incarceration, chronic poverty, etc. … Continue reading

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School Reform: Listen Deeply to What Teachers Know

Summary: Recent research identifies truths about kids and pedagogy that have long been embedded in the practice of American educators. Time is long past to act more consistently on teacher insights. The American teacher is targeted from some sectors as … Continue reading

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School Reform: Where Less May be More in the Refinement of Teaching

Summary: Teachers in countries that surpass the US in student test scores spend half or less the time in direct instruction than do American teachers. Regular collegial consultation and feedback, for novice and veteran alike, is part of how that … Continue reading

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School Reform: Can the Gates Foundation Listen to Teachers?

Summary: The Gates Foundation says it is listening to teachers as it calls for a moratorium on the use of Common Core testing to evaluate teachers. A good thing, if true, but meanwhile recent research casts doubt on the use … Continue reading

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School Reform: Once Again A Tale of Teacher Power

Summary: Amid the relative merits of “direct instruction” and “inquiry” approaches to curriculum, a narrative emerges that suggests teacher empowerment may be the more important variable. In the ongoing assault on school dysfunction, debate rages between those who advocate “direct … Continue reading

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School reform: The Teacherpreneur and the Center of the World

Summary:  Is “teacherpreneur” a re-branding of the classical role of teacher? The term and role of “teacherpreneur,” which has gained traction in the educational media and via Barnett Berry’s new book of the same name, strikes me at once as … Continue reading

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School Reform: Yes, There Is Some Good News!

Summary: School reform is a long and often discouraging slog. This is a pause to celebrate the many hopeful events and trends that together refresh for the next round. It is time to celebrate positives in the many headed effort … Continue reading

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School Reform and the Greening of Teachers’ Unions

Summary: Announcement that the National Education Association will engage dissident teachers in dialogue is a welcome step toward improving teachers’ union real involvement in school change. The apparent dearth of reform themes emanating from the union side in bargaining talks … Continue reading

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School Reform and Politics: Teach for America and Its Political Identity

Summary: Has Teach for America been hijacked by conservative and market ideology? Teach for America has become a political lightning rod in the struggle over reform in American education. The organization was originally conceived as an avenue through which to … Continue reading

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