Who benefits from parent-teacher organizations in schools? Which parents are included, and which are excluded? How can school leaders work with them? In this article, an historian and a sociologist review the complex history of parent-teacher organizing and examine current issues in parental efforts to improve schools, including concerns about…

By allowing students to ask critical questions about the places and spaces surrounding them, teachers can empower them to develop problem-solving skills to tackle issues and make a difference in their communities. In this article, Smith and Lowenstein offer three wonderful examples of long-standing environmental place-based education projects that…

Realizing their coaching program was not having desired effects for teachers or for students' achievement, leaders in the Manor School District in Texas revamped the district's coaching program. They created two "communities" encompassing all coaches in the district (since district schools were each doing their own thing with regard to…

Why don't most well-meaning efforts to improve teaching and grow key teachers' capacity to act as instructional leaders show success? Kenneth Baum and David Krulwich think they know why: While we set up "collaborative" procedures and meetings in which teachers work together to explore effective instruction--critical friends groups, data…

In 2005, the graduation rate for the Council Bluffs Community School District was, at 68 percent, the lowest in Iowa. District leaders knew that to improve, they needed to create a cultural change throughout the community. They began by getting community members involved in creating a strategic plan and mission statement that included a guarantee…

The first time the author was responsible for planning a districtwide professional development day, DuFour secured a funny speaker, provided plenty of doughnuts, and made sure everyone could return to their classrooms in the afternoon. "The day was considered a huge success," he notes. "There was absolutely no evidence that the day…

Once instructional coach Anne Beaton began creating chances for teachers to get into one another's classrooms to observe and learn about different teaching styles, she realized that not only is studying one another's teaching practices as a community essential in serving students, it also lifts teachers up as leaders. Beaton knew she was learning…

Teachers are starting to rebel against passive, one-size-fits-all forms of professional development and form their own learning networks through online platforms, edcamps, and so on. But free-choice learning experiences don't foster a community of shared professional inquiry or learning in a school or district. Rodman describes how any school…

Although there has been much debate about how "learning loss" is conceptualized and the degree to which the pandemic has affected it (Dickler, 2021; Jacobson, 2021; Strauss, 2021), one thing is certain: the pandemic has likely exacerbated the instructional gaps that students already had, especially in the case of those who attend…

Efforts to promote college for all for all has opened college doors to a broad range of students. But college--and career success after college--doesn't have to mean a bachelor's degree. Community college credentials, such as associate's degrees and one-year certificates, can lead to further degrees or jobs that offer more benefits than students…

In this article, the author reflects on the support that novice teachers may need when preparing lesson plans. Showing that support makes a difference, three groups of teachers (one with access to lessons plans along with assistance from an online learning community; one with model plans but just online access; and one writing their own lesson…

In this article, Goodwin describes how today's students need teachers to model warmth and empathy. In the zealous rush to meet 21st century demands--e-mailing assignments, customizing projects for tablets and laptops, and allowing students to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), students are not learning to think and communicate in real time. Godwin…

Today's teachers and administrators are caught in a squeeze of conflicting demands. And evaluation guru Charlotte Danielson fears that teacher evaluation, as it's often implemented today, is making things worse. In schools where teacher evaluation has become simply a matter of numbers, ratings, and rankings, it may be undermining the very…

While the purpose of K-12 education is largely to train students for college and career, free education in a democratic society has another purpose: to prepare citizens to rule themselves. In this article, Anderson and Gurnee explain how place-based learning equips students to be active citizens in their communities. In this model, school localize…

School improvement initiatives can be like New Year's resolutions. They begin with a cherished vision of possibility and a spirit of commitment, and at first they make genuine progress. But over the long run, they fizzle out. In this article, David N. Perkins and James Reese explore four factors that help determine whether a change effort…