For decades, when budgets dictated teacher cutbacks, no judgment of instructional skills was required. No evaluation of student results changed the outcome. No one consulted a summative evaluation. Schools just went to the personnel file, determined hiring dates, and the last one in lost her or his chair. In the new political landscape, lawmakers…

A national survey of school districts last fall by the Center on Education Policy found that fewer than half of the districts had planned professional development aligned to the Common Core State Standards this school year. The challenge of getting the nation's 3.2 million K-12 public school teachers ready to teach to the standards is enormous.…

In 1978, James Vivian established the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, a collaborative program between Yale faculty and New Haven public schools designed to improve teacher effectiveness. The program stemmed from work Vivian had begun while director of a history education project that promoted faculty partnerships with public school teachers.…

School administrators are facing the perfect storm: a growing number of baby boomers retiring each year, an absence of experienced teachers to take their place, and high turnover among young teachers. The need to hire and retain a new generation of teachers is one of the biggest challenges facing school administrators. To fill these vacancies,…

This article describes a program created to improve mathematics instruction in a school district's lowest-performing schools. The program was initiated as a partnership among the University of North Carolina, Action Greensboro (a group of six local foundations), and Guilford County Schools that had a goal of attracting a full complement of…

This article discusses why the work of central-office administrators and building administrators seem so disconnected from one another. The fact that central-office administrators and principals seem to travel in orbits with different paths, with seemingly few areas of significant overlap, has a decidedly negative impact on the ability of the…

The first days of any teacher's career leave indelible memories of trials and errors, successes and failures, and efforts to get to know one's students. No matter how many years one teaches, those first students in those first classes stand apart in a teacher's mind. In this article, the author shares his insights and realizations regarding his…

In this article, the author discusses the importance of having more experienced and more prepared teachers for students to learn more. Here, the author presents two books: (1) A Good Teacher in Every Classroom; and (2) Preparing Teachers for a Changing World. A Good Teacher outlines current research on effective teaching, citing necessary areas of…

The number of minority students in the schools is rapidly increasing. Simultaneously, the number of minority teachers is decreasing. Achievement gaps by minority students exists across the nation. Due to the lack of culturally responsive pedagogy and practice in their preparation programs, teachers have resorted to less effective measures in…

Around the world, the importance of education to individual and societal success has increased at a breathtaking pace as a new knowledge-based economy has emerged. As a consequence, most countries have been engaged in intensive reforms of their education systems, and many have focused especially on improving teacher education, recognizing that…