In recent years, debates over school reform have increasingly focused on the role of teacher unions in the changing landscape of American K-12 education. On one hand, critics argue that these unions, using their powerful grip on education politics and policy to great effect, bear primary responsibility for blocking states' efforts to put into…

Utilizing critical and sociocultural approaches to teaching and learning, this article presents data from seven middle grade students at a Title I school regarding their experiences in a student-constructed learning group. Findings reveal students' desires and abilities to constructively participate in work with others that runs contrary to common…

Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., and Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford University, wrote in "How to Rescue Education Reform" in The New York Times on December 5 that the federal government can and should play a…

Youth today in Roman Catholic schools are not experiencing the complete freedom of an identity that is unique and valued. They describe the Ontario Roman Catholic school system as if it is still an agent of colonial forces, maintaining imperial power through denominational religious elitism. Using a critical ethnographic methodology within a…

A system is a group of interacting, interrelated, and interdependent components that form a complex and unified whole. Systems thinking is a way of understanding reality that emphasizes the relationships among systems parts, rather than the parts themselves. Based on a field of study known as "system dynamics", systems thinking has a practical…

There is agreement that teaching practices should be responsive to the cultural identities of their students, but less clarity regarding both the specifics of culturally responsive pedagogies and effective strategies for implementing them in classrooms across the curriculum. A mixed-methods research approach evaluated the impact of teacher…

Instead of doing less with less during these fiscally challenging times, school districts can seize the moment to usher in school transformation that will leave the schools, families, and communities better off. They could follow the lead of districts such as Baltimore City, Syracuse, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg to think outside traditional cost…

This article underscores the need for a profound transformation in the training processes of future teachers, and thereby in teaching practices. The text first presents various grounds for this transformation, citing social, economic-political, teleological, axiological, epistemological, and psychological factors. It then focuses on teacher…

In this article I discuss the demographic shifts that have occurred in the United States, which have disrupted the traditional school environment. I contend that the changes have been so drastic that students who were once called traditional are now seldom seen in the school environment; whereas students once viewed nontraditional are becoming the…

When 16 finalists come to Washington next week to make their final pitches in the $4 billion Race to the Top competition, most can expect to go home empty-handed. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in announcing the finalists last week, said that no more than $2 billion will be divided among "very few winners" when the awards are…

High school improvement initiatives often focus on specific intervention strategies, programs, or priority topics (e.g., dropout intervention, dual enrollment, freshman academies). However, research shows that systemic and sustainable improvement can be achieved only when initiatives are implemented with consideration for the broader education…

Specific strategies for "turning around" chronically low-performing schools have become prominent, with the U.S. Department of Education enacting policies to promote four school improvement models that include "fundamental, comprehensive changes in leadership, staffing, and governance." Despite the attention and activity…

The pressing need to improve achievement in American schools is widely recognized. In "Tests, Testing, and Genuine School Reform," Herbert J. Walberg draws on scientific studies of tests and their uses to inform citizens, educators, and policy makers about well-established principles of testing, current problems, and promising evidence-based…

Schools need sustainable reform to meet the challenges of rapid and constant change and higher community expectations. Sustainable school reform is best achieved when teachers and school leaders: (1) understand what is happening in the broader community and the implications this has for schools (being contextually literate); (2) run their schools…

Two persistent dilemmas haunt school reform: curriculum politics and classroom constancy. Both undermined the 1960s' new social studies, a dynamic reform movement centered on inquiry, issues, and social activism. Dramatic academic freedom controversies ended reform and led to a conservative restoration. On one side were teachers and curriculum…