This paper draws on practitioner inquiry and participatory action research methodologies to recount how five K-12 educators, who inhabit a range of positionalities and levels of teaching experience, engage in a collaborative professional development program, called Teaching Out Loud as they draw upon critical literacy theory and practice to…

Over a decade ago, Borko (2004) raised the awareness of the education research community to the critical need for studies of teacher professional development (PD) programs. She states on page 13: "My challenge to the educational research community is this: We have much work to do and many questions to answer in order to provide high-quality…

The population of U.S. schools has shifted dramatically in the past two decades to include many more linguistically and culturally diverse learners, while the teacher population has remained largely White and monolingual, with limited connections to immigrant communities. Among the many changes diverse learners have brought to U.S. schools is the…

Recent education reforms have begun to reframe academic discussion and teacher practice surrounding bilingual educational approaches for preparing "21st century, college and career ready" citizens. Given this broader context, in this article we examine ways that we might join implementation of dual language programs, Common Core State…

Effective educational reform involves changes in the overall operations of schools. Teachers who collaborate, analyze the functions of their schools, and adjust their practices become leaders and participants in whole-school change. This study documents the impact of teacher leadership teams from three schools in their efforts to increase access…

The purpose of this study was to determine if implementing a specific collaborative structure would create effective teacher teams that in turn would lead to improved student achievement. An effective team can be viewed as one that uses collaboration to increase its knowledge and improve its practices. The structure that was implemented during…

Recently, federal legislation has been implemented requiring that public school students meet a specified performance level of academic proficiency by the 2013/2014 school year. This reform movement, known as "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB), was passed by Congress and incorporates many of President Bush's educational reform proposals…

This article examines a premise underlying teacher accountability policies, namely, that annual student learning gains can be attributed to individual teachers. After analyzing data collected in fourth- and fifth-grade reading and mathematics classes in 18 schools, the authors identify forms of instructional design that rely on multiple teachers.…