"It's always been a promising time for teacher leadership. It's just never been a successful time," writes noted educator Roland Barth. Why? Barth points to five obstacles: administrator resistance, the taboo in teaching against elevating oneself higher than one's peers, the fact that teachers' plates are full, the…

There is no doubt that in the past 10 years, school culture has become a testing culture. But all the "multiple measures" do not really lead one to achieve the three most often cited goals of testing: building proficiency in basic skills, closing achievement gaps, and fostering the top-notch knowledge and skills that students will need…

Professional assessment organizations almost universally endorse the use of multiple measures for making education decisions. In practice, however, the concept of multiple measures is defined and applied in many different ways, depending on how we answer two questions--What counts as a "measure"? and How are the multiple measures…

Teachers will be more willing to accept responsibility for results if they have a part in determining the environment in which they practice. (Author)

Article stresses the need for decision makers and educational researchers to work more closely together. (ML)

The two pillars--equal access to knowledge and public demonstration of results--will define the boundaries for decentralizing decisions about curriculum, instructional delivery, staff development, and evaluation. Several schools have already implemented team teaching, deeper course content, multidisciplinary curricula, portfolio student…

Article is based partially on work done by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon, in the development of instructional systems which provide increased problem-solving capabilities for teachers and administrators. (Editor)