A study examined the participation of K-12 teachers from an urban school district in ongoing reform efforts, initiated under Massachusetts' 1993 Education Reform Act. The study's purpose was to identify the initial factors underlying changes in teacher attitudes, factors encouraging use of a new educational model, and the impact of reforms on…

In open-ended interviews, students characterized their teachers as: mean, hard, easy, good, strict, fun, or nice. Analyses of later student interviews suggested that, when these seventh-grade students conceptualize their teachers, they attend to four major foci: (1) academic work students are expected to complete; (2) teachers' instructional…