While coaches can have a positive impact on teachers' practice and students' learning, in many school districts teachers have the autonomy to decide whether and when to work with a coach. Coaches then must work to gain access to teachers' classrooms. In a recent study of 28 content-focused coaches, researchers Jen Munson and Evthokia Stephanie…

In predominantly white and affluent communities, it is a common belief that race and racism are irrelevant because there is little to no racial diversity in these communities. Elyse Hambacher and Denise Desrosiers describe how a New Hampshire school district in a mostly white community navigates teaching and leading for social justice despite…

There is much alarm about the current teacher shortage resulting from the pandemic and its aftermath. But teacher shortages have long been a perennial issue in K-12 education. Researchers Richard Ingersoll and Henry Tran analyzed data from the National Center of Education Statistics to compare rural schools to urban and suburban schools to…

To fulfill educational promises such as "every student succeeds," district leaders must embrace an agenda committed to equitable opportunities for students. Doing so requires breaking from managerial norms to identify new ways forward that prioritize historically low-performing schools. Coby Meyers, Lamar Goree, and Keith Burton distill…

If we want talented young teachers to develop the capacity to get students excited about high-quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning, we must develop a network of STEM teachers who can support teachers in their continued learning about their work and enable them to collaborate with others. If we want teachers to…

The original vision of a charter school called for heavy doses of professional teacher contribution throughout all aspects of curriculum and administration. Unfortunately, that is not how charter schools have evolved. Until now. The Minnesota Guild of Public Charter Schools is the first union-sponsored entity created for the sole purpose of…

In praise of isolation: Who says professional learning communities (PLCs) are a better way? The author says the PLC trend is but the latest education fad that is not helping teachers or students. PLCs, says the author, represents an administrative, clinical ideal of collaboration. He blames legions of high-paid consultants, and says that all along…

This article opens with a thought provoking question--When it comes to defining teacher leadership, how much do we limit ourselves by assuming that the way teachers work today must always be the way teachers work? The author points out that pioneering groups of public school teachers across the United States are advancing a new definition of…

This article describes a teacher-led school "Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy" (MSLA) that is part of the Denver Public Schools. At MSLA, teachers collaborate to make authentic and substantive decisions about how the school operates and seek to meet each student's needs. At teacher-led schools, teachers hire their own…

Thirty exemplary 4th-grade teachers in six states were interviewed to determine the factors that influenced their development. The teachers cited three influences on their development: specific kinds of professional development, collegial support, and a sense of engaged autonomy. They valued professional development that provided a systematic way…

Eleven educators came together in spring 2012 for a wide-ranging discussion of teacher evaluation and professional development in the era of high-stakes testing and data-based accountability. The participants in this conversation are alumni of the Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate…

Attempts to promote collaboration among teachers conflict with a long tradition of teacher isolation. Defenders of this isolation often argue that such collaboration should be voluntary. However, because the preponderance of evidence suggests that collaboration is better than isolation, professionalism demands that all teachers be required to…

The Common Core of Standards project has strong national support, but it will not succeed if it doesn't involve teachers in grassroots development activities. The initiative should involve local consortia of schools in working with the new standards, assessments, and support tools. Local teachers would design teaching units and then share these…

The Money Myth is the contention that any education problem requires increased spending and, conversely, that reform is impossible without more funding. However, increased funding works for only certain kinds of school resources. Many reforms require resources that money cannot buy. What is needed are reforms that build the capacity of schools to…

Despite the norms of privacy that pervade teacher culture and the assumptions of behind-closed-doors independence, teachers actually "need" their colleagues, whether they like it--and them--or not. Teachers are inherently dependent on one another since no one of them alone constitutes their students' education. Students move from teacher to…