This qualitative case study explored the perspectives of two high school teachers who approach their work as reflective practitioners, capable of thinking deeply about systemic issues and teachers' work lives. Our research questions included: 1) how do the conditions of schooling influence an intellectual approach to teachers' work?; 2) how do…

The American legislation of No Child Left Behind resulted in a boom in scripted, prepackaged curricula for improving student outcomes. At the same time, greater attention to the needs of diverse populations also took prominence, resulting in a new area of study, culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy. The current view is that scripted curriculum…

This document contains excerpts from Team Up for 21st Century Teaching & Learning. This document includes the excerpts of five articles that provide a substantial evidence-based argument for the power of collaborative communities to improve teaching and learning. These articles are: (1) Professional Communities and the Artisan Model of…

Using a reader-response approach, the author examines practitioners' interpretations of three narrative inquiry texts to highlight how their responses suggest ways to enhance and more particularly nuance narrative inquiry representations of teaching practice. She asserts that the transactive character of the reader-response relationship across…

Every school district has policies and procedures for evaluating teachers that are shaped by state law and local collective bargaining agreements. As a result of No Child Left Behind and other accountability legislation many states modified requirements about the frequency of evaluation and now require the use of student achievement data as one…

Since constraints on time, resources, and even energy often come into play in finding opportunities for meaningful discussions about pedagogy between the novice teacher (NT) and the supervisor, post-lesson conversations at the school site can often be brief, superficial, lacking reflective self-analysis, narrow in focus, interrupted, or even…

Federal legislation (Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act, No Child Left Behind) mandates access to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities. As a response, K-12 schools are moving to coteaching models with increased frequency (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008). However, preservice teachers…

So much of teaching is now driven by data (i.e., test scores) and dictated by "best practices" that teachers are losing confidence in their own creativity. Yet, despite these unfortunate consequences of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the important work of teachers remains unchanged. That work is the work of connecting personally and…

Standards-based education, including over-packed curricula and high-stakes assessments, is here to stay--at least for the next decade or so. If this approach to teaching and learning is a reality that everyone must deal with, how can everyone leverage what is positive and reduce some of the negative aspects? In this article, the author discusses…

This article reports on the results of a mixed method case study investigating the relationship between professional learning community (PLC) activities and teacher improvement in a first-year middle school. Data were collected from core academic sixth, seventh, and eighth grade teachers using a professional development survey, teacher interviews,…

Accountability. The very mention of the word strikes fear in the hearts of many teachers and school leaders, leading to confusion and panic rather than improved student achievement. Author Douglas B. Reeves explains how to transform accountability from destructive and demoralizing accounting drills into a constructive decision-making process that…