Drawing upon data from an Australian study, this book gives voice to beginning teachers navigating their way through their first year of teaching and discovering what it means to be professional learners. The chapters within provide rich insights into the ways in which beginning teachers make sense of the new and challenging experiences they face…

This book examines both the promise and complexity of diversifying today's teaching profession. Drawing from a 5-year study of 21 new teachers of color working in urban, hard-to-staff schools, this book uncovers a systemic paradox that the teachers confront. They are committed to improving educational opportunities for students of color by acting…

Why are America's public schools falling so short of the mark in educating the nation's children? Why are they organized in ineffective ways that fly in the face of common sense, to the point that it is virtually impossible to get even the worst teachers out of the classroom? And why, after more than a quarter century of costly education reform,…

In this powerful collection of personal accounts, successful and respected teachers from across the country reveal how recent education policies have played out in their schools and classrooms in negative and counterproductive ways, and offer teacher-led alternatives for providing equitable, engaging, and empowering education. Framed by critical…

This book makes available to a wider audience for the first time material based on fieldwork carried out by the Solomon Island researchers in their own country. The findings will have vital relevance to policy makers, teachers and students. Over the past four years the School of Education, Solomon Islands College of Higher Education and the…

This book shows how a school district's local teacher evaluation committee can design evaluation systems in which educators can achieve the dual purposes of accountability and professional development and even merge these purposes. A structural framework for designing the evaluation is proposed that locates teachers in one of three tracks: the…

Twenty to 30 percent of new teachers leave their field within the first 3 years; 9.3 percent don't even make it through their first full year; and after 5 years, roughly 50 percent of beginners have left teaching. Reasons for leaving include pursuit of a more personally appropriate career, low pay, the desire to raise one's own children, and…