This paper suggests specific changes in Chapter 1 legislation (up for reauthorization in the fall of 1993) to make it more responsive not only to schools and students, but also to current school restructuring initiatives and new understandings of teaching, learning, and assessment. Recommendations are made in the areas of greater equity in access…

This paper examines Kate Walsh's Abell Foundation report, which purports to prove there is no credible research supporting the use of teacher certification as a regulatory barrier to teaching and argues against reforms that would strengthen incentives to bring qualified teaches to inner city schools. This paper discusses inaccuracies in Walsh's…

Many reports have pointed to the need to improve the quality of mathematics and science teaching in schools in the United States and to alleviate the shortage of qualified teachers. A policy focus on the teaching force is reinforced by the fact that the ability of the United States to compete in an increasingly technological world economy depends…

This paper offers an overview and analysis of the status of teaching as an occupation and of teacher development in the United States. An opening section describes the development of the industrial-based education model that has been in place for this century and the reform movements that have started in the past two decades. A section on the…

This monograph examines issues that will shape teacher education programs in the future. Following a foreword by Robert M. McClure, the monograph is organized into three chapters. The first, "Perestroika and Professionalism: The Case for Restructuring Teacher Preparation" (Linda Darling-Hammond), focuses on changes wrought by school…

This report attempts to remedy the neglect of educational equality in recent educational reports by discussing both the educational status of black Americans and recent policy trends as they affect black students. Following an overview, trends in income and employment, family characteristics, and the degree of social mobility are discussed as a…

Argues that content standards that are aligned with tests are the wrong starting point for systemic school change aimed at improving teaching and learning and that national standards are the wrong vehicle. Policies should attempt to create a system in which community involvement, teacher knowledge, and equalized school capacity are starting points…

This report presents the results of one of the first empirical investigations of how a tax subsidy for tuition costs actually influences parents' school choices. It provides data about subsidy costs, utilization, and effects in Minnesota, the first state to have a tuition subsidy pass judicial review at all levels of the court system. The study…

The four papers presented here address teacher development from an international viewpoint. In "Professional Development and Standards" (Linda Darling-Hammond) it is suggested that U.S. educators engage in new kinds of collaborations with universities, and it proposes a shift from information transmittal to "co-construction" of…

The Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) of 1981 is intended to provide opportunities for states and local governments to have more control of their educational programs and to deregulate the administration of federal programs. Introduced at a time when state funding and revenue systems are in flux and severely depleted, it presents…

This paper focuses on ways in which one state policy for improving education--standard-setting through testing mechanisms--affects the classroom teacher-learner relationship. That uniform policy-making is problematic is clear from observations of 43 Mid-Atlantic school district teachers. Responding to three types of standards, 45 percent found…

During the 1990s, a new policy hypothesis focusing on the quality of teaching to provide a high-leverage means for improving student achievement began to gain currency. Based on interview, observation, survey, and record data collected at the state, district, and school levels over a five-year time period, the study offers a look at how the San…

This report gauges progress toward achieving high quality teaching in every classroom, using data about teaching conditions that are new since publication of an earlier report by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. Section 1, "Doing What Matters Most: Investing in Quality Teaching," describes the Commission's original…