Teaching has always been a demanding profession, and the demands have only escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic. David T. Marshall, Tim Pressley, Natalie M. Neugebauer, & David M. Shannon review research from before and during the pandemic to learn what makes teachers likely to leave the profession and share results from their May 2022…

Amid already critical teacher shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many teachers to leave the profession, but we know little about how it may affect teacher recruitment. Kayla Bill, Amanda Bowsher, Betty Malen, Jennifer King Rice, and Jason Saltmarsh conducted a survey and focus groups to explore how COVID-19 has influenced…

In a study of teachers and administrators seeking advanced degrees and certification, over 78% of teachers reported negative rewards that included larger classes and more duties and committee assignments. Over 85% of administrators were given more responsibilities with no pay increase. While such rewards seemed positive at first, they led to…

Contends that staff development, supposedly designed to assist teachers, has instead colluded with forces to continue their colonization. Since teachers are not taking charge of their profession and participating actively in educational change, certain actions must be taken to lighten their nonprofessional workload and to build a professional…

Despite higher expectations for student learning that require problem-solving, in-depth discussions, and extended small-group projects, central-office directives (in response to standards and testing pressures) are proliferating and intruding on instructional time. These and other routine interruptions convinced the author to end a decade-long…

Describes how Wayland (Massachusetts) High School implemented the Trump Plan for team teaching in the early 1960s and how the school gradually abandoned the program because of staff turnover, teacher dissatisfaction, lack of administrative support, and loss of funds. (RW)

Outcome-based education, a labor-intensive process driven by mastery learning, is an unsuitable model for training future teachers. Education professors are too overworked to provide individualized instruction. Although OBE theoretically balances remediation and enrichment, fast learners often "tread water," with little incentive to work…

Presents major conclusions from a 1990 report "Unusually Effective Schools: A Review and Analysis of Research and Practice." Guidelines for multischool improvement projects include providing substantial staff development time and technical assistance, focusing on instructional improvement, avoiding faculty overload and overreliance on bureaucratic…

In a series of letters, a veteran high school English teacher advises a student teacher to tell students the "big reasons" for learning; control her workload by increasing students' learning responsibility; plan lessons based on weekly schedules and meaningful writing assignments; and avoid exhaustion by streamlining classroom rules,…

Countless good ideas, research, and reforms (silver bullets) have yielded only modest improvement, suggesting problems of research (dogma, design, duration, and domain) and problems of distribution--expanded teacher responsibility. This article recommends revamping teacher education, remediating or firing incompetent teachers, and reducing class…

Overload and fragmentation combine to reduce educators' motivation for working on reform. Since educational change is essentially nonlinear, existing school cultures and structures are antithetically opposed to systemic reform activities, including networking. The lesson of systemic reform is to adopt strategies that mobilize large numbers of…

Under a bill amending Ontario, Canada's Educational Accountability Act, teachers were expected to resume formerly "voluntary" extracurricular duties they resigned when ordered to teach an extra class. The government's strategy to recast these activities as "co-instructional" did not fly. However, the education minister is…

Practical schooling realities defy grand designs for change, including imposing tougher standards. Standards will not work because U.S. schools are complex systems; educators do not understand, accept, or "enforce" state standards; teachers have too many kids and not enough time; student problems predominate; and publicly embarrassing educators is…

Parents' nostalgia and waning confidence in teachers' competence are primary obstacles to improving schools. Teaching and public education are at a crossroads. One road involves teachers and parent partners in a broad social movement that ultimately protects and redefines teacher professionalism. The other leads to deprofessionalization of…

Outlines 10 areas requiring teacher leadership in schools; discusses benefits for students, teachers, the school, and the principal; and lists impediments (workload, time, testing constraints, colleagues' disapprobation, and unsupportive principals). Determined, goal-driven teachers have the power to unlock one another's leadership potential and…