The author lays out guidelines and suggestions for how teachers can actually become policy leaders, taken from his book, "The Cage-Busting Teacher" (Harvard Education Press, 2015). Teachers serious about leadership can get the ear of policy makers by leveraging their positional and moral authority--though they may need to be persistent…

U.S. education is at a transformational moment. The choices we make will determine whether our schools become collaborative and democratic or prescriptive and authoritarian. The policies proposed by the federal government for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will create some good schools for some students while…

Too many educators avoid using data when making decisions because they believe it is too time-consuming to do so. The authors present five steps that make it easier to use data in making school decisions. The first step is to review school improvement plan to identify the most salient issues a school wants to improve. The second step is to…

American science education is plagued by a fundamental confusion--a mismatch between goals claimed to be valued and the strategies used to achieve them. This confusion is rooted in the seemingly simple idea that science education should prepare students for the future. For some, this "preparation" is about good citizenship and a satisfying life.…

Describes how one elementary school's adoption of a character-education program significantly reduced student discipline problems. (PKP)

Presents a flow chart for turning good ideas into complete proposals before proposing them. The process involves clarifying the idea and assessing its current practicality, value for the program, compatibility with policy, implications, costs, funding sources, and implementation time requirements. (PGD)

This study emphasizes the relationship of perception to thinking and explains direct teaching of thinking. Without clarity of seeing and creativity, perception is shown to become narrow patterning. The Cognitive Research Trust program is recommended for teaching thinking skills using transferable thinking "tools." Self-images of students…

Sixty 15-minute television programs help students learn to reason and systematically solve problems. The goals are confident, flexible thinking; self-management; effective expression; and systematic reasoning. The cognitive skills emphasized include information collecting, classifying, and communicating effectively. A resource list is provided.…

The 1980s reform movement has been top-down, with national commissions, state laws, bully-pulpit speakers, and buzzwords like "accountability" and "excellence." A new reform agenda will probably focus on human and social needs, rather than economic and military-industrial preoccupations. President George Bush represents the…