At Peters K-3 Elementary School in Garden Grove, California, teacher leadership and empowerment supported by professional learning from the district have led to increases in student outcomes and in parent and student satisfaction with the culture and climate of the school community. Peters demonstrates the impact that empowering staffs and…

As the cultural and experience gap between an increasingly diverse student population and predominantly white, female educators widens, schools continue to rely heavily on the pedagogies, curricula, assessments, and interventions that more effectively served a homogeneous group of educators than they do a heterogeneous student population. The…

Professional development in Rockwood School District, a suburban school district outside St. Louis, Missouri, in 1997 was focused on individual teacher development rather than organizational development. Staff learning activities were fragmented. Teachers participated in a variety of unrelated topics the district offered from month to month. An…

School-based learning depends on teachers' capacity to engage with each other around central issues of teaching and learning. While such collaboration is readily welcomed by some educators, others remain wedded to an "independent contractor" concept of teaching. Supporting teachers to view themselves as team members and to perform effectively as a…

Discusses how reform affects students and how teachers can help them adapt to change. After explaining the principles of change and how they affect students, the paper examines the stages of change (comfortable dependence, anxiety, and comfortable independence); discusses students and the process of change; explains the supports that students need…

An interview with Public Agenda's vice president examines what Public Agenda's research has determined about: attitudes of various groups toward school reform; students' yearning for discipline and standards; the public's perspective of the value of teachers; the public's desire for immediate improvement; the public's engagement in the change…