One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in creating and sustaining an administrative professional learning community (PLC) is time. Administrators are constantly deluged by the tyranny of the urgent. It is a Herculean task to carve out time for PLCs, but it is imperative to do so. In this article, the authors describe how an administrative PLC…

Value-added data provide a viable alternative for gauging school effectiveness--one virtually free of the confounding effects of student demographics and other factors relating to student learning. How is it different from other measuring methods? It concentrates on growth, rather than attainment. This strengthens the concept and measurement of…

Introduces an education reform model featuring 2 positive feedback loops: a 20-year apprenticeship system for teachers; and a continuous improvement system for classroom materials, curriculum, professional development, and classroom assessment. Continuing teacher education would emphasize deeper understanding of subject matter, mastery of improved…

An urban school in Columbus, Ohio, had in place a program of surprisingly explicit training of young children for the modern marketplace. Starting in kindergarten, children in the school were asked to think about the jobs they might choose when they grew up. The posters that surrounded them made clear which kinds of jobs they were expected to…