How can a professional development event best stimulate and support teachers, administrators, parents, and students in making serious whole-school change, while connecting them with the work of colleagues in other schools? Teachers at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (the Met) in Providence, Rhode Island and educators at the affiliated Big Picture Company think they have found an answer
Keeping the teacher corps strong and well qualified will cost up to $5 billion annually, the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future says in its 1996 and 1997 reports, but it will pay off handsomely. Among its points: Money spent on supporting and educating teachers pays off in student learning. Teachers who know a lot about teaching and learning,
As the student population grows, Essential schools are facing critical issues of teacher preparation, turnover, retention, and leadership. Four new and veteran teachers talk here about their own experiences of building a professional life in this time of change. They come from places as various as the earth itself, some still rough at their edges, some polished by the tumble
To launch a major new “critical friends project” in a dozen Michigan Essential schools, teachers filled out an unusual survey recently, which asked them to choose four peers from whom they felt they could learn most effectively. Developed by Fran Vandiver, a veteran Essential school principal who now heads Fort Lauderdale High School in Florida, the survey defines such a
What matters most to teachers in an Essential school? Asked to reflect on how to improve the conditions and effectiveness of their daily work, the faculty of one of “Horace’s schools” came up with four common concerns: Knowing students well. To improve the quality of their teaching and assessment, teachers wanted a smaller number of students overall. To achieve this
By 2207 our schools will enroll nearly three million more students than today, a total of 54 million youngsters. More than one quarter of all teachers are over 50, and teacher retirements are accelerating. Over the next decade, more than two million teachers will need to be hired to fill elementary and secondary teaching positions. Over half of these will