Teachers and Reform

Teachers and Reform PDF Author: John F. Lyons
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252032721
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Drawing on archival as well as rich interview material, John F. Lyons examines the role of Chicago public schoolteachers and their union, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), in shaping the policies and practices of public education in Chicago from 1937 to 1970. From the union's formation in 1937 until the 1960s, the CTU was the largest and most influential teachers' union in the country, operating in the nation's second largest school system. Although all Chicago public schoolteachers were committed to such bread-and-butter demands as higher salaries, many teachers also sought a more rigorous reform of the school system through calls for better working conditions, greater classroom autonomy, more funding for education, and the end of political control of the schools. Using political action, public relations campaigns, and community alliances, the CTU successfully raised members' salaries and benefits, increased school budgets, influenced school curricula, and campaigned for greater equality for women within the Chicago public education system. Examining teachers' unions and public education from the bottom up, Lyons shows how teachers' unions helped to shape one of the largest public education systems in the nation. Taking into consideration the larger political context, such as World War II, the McCarthy era, and the civil rights movements of the 1960s, this study analyzes how the teachers' attempts to improve their working lives and the quality of the Chicago public school system were constrained by internal divisions over race and gender as well as external disputes between the CTU and the school administration, state and local politicians, and powerful business and civic organizations. Because of the obstacles they faced and the decisions they made, unionized teachers left many problems unresolved, but they effected changes to public education and to local politics that still benefit Chicago teachers and the public today.

Teachers and Reform

Teachers and Reform PDF Author: John F. Lyons
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252032721
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Drawing on archival as well as rich interview material, John F. Lyons examines the role of Chicago public schoolteachers and their union, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), in shaping the policies and practices of public education in Chicago from 1937 to 1970. From the union's formation in 1937 until the 1960s, the CTU was the largest and most influential teachers' union in the country, operating in the nation's second largest school system. Although all Chicago public schoolteachers were committed to such bread-and-butter demands as higher salaries, many teachers also sought a more rigorous reform of the school system through calls for better working conditions, greater classroom autonomy, more funding for education, and the end of political control of the schools. Using political action, public relations campaigns, and community alliances, the CTU successfully raised members' salaries and benefits, increased school budgets, influenced school curricula, and campaigned for greater equality for women within the Chicago public education system. Examining teachers' unions and public education from the bottom up, Lyons shows how teachers' unions helped to shape one of the largest public education systems in the nation. Taking into consideration the larger political context, such as World War II, the McCarthy era, and the civil rights movements of the 1960s, this study analyzes how the teachers' attempts to improve their working lives and the quality of the Chicago public school system were constrained by internal divisions over race and gender as well as external disputes between the CTU and the school administration, state and local politicians, and powerful business and civic organizations. Because of the obstacles they faced and the decisions they made, unionized teachers left many problems unresolved, but they effected changes to public education and to local politics that still benefit Chicago teachers and the public today.

Teaching in Context

Teaching in Context PDF Author: Esther Quintero
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781682530382
Category : Education and state
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Teaching in Context provides new evidence from a range of leading scholars showing that teachers become more effective when they work in organizations that support them in comprehensive and coordinated ways. The studies featured in the book suggest an alternative approach to enhancing teacher quality: creating conditions and school structures that facilitate the transmission and sharing of knowledge among teachers, allowing teachers to work together effectively, and capitalizing on what we know about how educators learn and improve. The chapters in this book point to the need to reevaluate current policies for assessing and ensuring teacher effectiveness, and establish the foundation for a more thoughtful, research-informed approach. "What a wonderful collection of diverse voices in this book, all sounding a similar message. Successful schools encourage and support purposeful collaboration among adults and they focus on students. In these schools, teachers feel more rewarded for their efforts and students learn more. Practitioners and researchers understand these findings. Now, let's build education policies that enable them." --John Q. Easton, vice president of programs, Spencer Foundation "Teaching in Context is a call to action--one to which Esther Quintero and her colleagues invite us to imagine, build, nurture, and protect a profession and culture fueled by supportive networks that produce more trust and less churn." --Ralph R. Smith, managing director, Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Esther Quintero is a senior fellow at the Albert Shanker Institute. Andy Hargreaves is the Brennan Chair in Education at Boston College.

Teachers, Teaching, and Reform

Teachers, Teaching, and Reform PDF Author: Ralph P. Ferretti
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351737449
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
Comprised of contributions from distinguished education scholars, Teachers, Teaching, and Reform takes a critical look at evidence about systemic efforts to identify excellent teachers and promote excellent teaching practices. Organized to include diverse and often contrasting perspectives on the topic, this book provides insight into some of the most vexing historical issues affecting the policies that shape current reform initiatives focused on teachers, teaching, and educational outcomes. Educational scholars, policy makers, instructors, and graduate students will come away with a keen understanding of different perspectives about the assessment of teachers, teaching, and teacher education programs, as well as strategies for improving educational outcomes for students.

Teacher Education Reform as Political Theater

Teacher Education Reform as Political Theater PDF Author: Elena Aydarova
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438476167
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Winner of the 2021 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Society of Professors of Education Winner of the 2020 Critics Choice Award presented by the American Educational Studies Association (AESA) Winner of the 2020 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Council on Anthropology and Education Around the world, countries undertake teacher education reforms in response to international norms and assessments. Russia has been no exception. Elena Aydarova develops a unique theatrical framework to tell the story of a small group of reformers who enacted a major reform to modernize teacher education in Russia. Based on scripts circulated in global policy networks and ideologies of national development, this reform was implemented despite great opposition—but how? Drawing on extensive ethnographic material, Aydarova teases out the contradictions in this process. Teacher Education Reform as Political Theater reveals how the official story of improving education obscured dramatic and, ultimately, socially conservative changes in the purposes of schooling, the nature and perception of teachers' work, and the design of teacher education. Despite the official rhetoric, Aydarova argues, modernization reforms such as we see in the Russian context normalize social inequality and put educational systems at the service of global corporations. As similar dramas unfold around the world, this book considers how members of scholarly communities and the broader public can respond to reformers' stories of crises and urgent calls for reform on other national stages.

Teachers Leading Educational Reform

Teachers Leading Educational Reform PDF Author: Alma Harris
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317247884
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Teachers Leading Educational Reform explores the ways in which teachers across the world are currently working together in professional learning communities (PLCs) to generate meaningful change and innovation in order to transform pedagogy and practice. By discussing how teachers can work collectively and collaboratively on the issues of learning and teaching that matter to them, it argues that through collective action and collaborative agency, teachers are leading educational reform. By offering contemporary examples and perspectives on the practice, impact and sustainability of PLCs, this book takes a global, comparative view showing categorically that those educational systems that are performing well, and seek to perform well, are using PLCs as the infrastructure to support teacher-led improvement. Split into three sections that look at the macro, meso and micro aspects of how far professional collaboration is building the capacity and capability for school and system improvement, this text asks the questions: Is the PLC work authentic? Is the PLC work being implemented at a superficial or deep level? Is there evidence of a positive impact on students/teachers at the school/district/system level? Is provision in place for sustaining the PLC work? Teachers Leading Educational Reform illustrates how focused and purposeful professional collaboration is contributing to change and reform across the globe. It reinforces why teachers must be at the heart of the school reform processes as the drivers and architects of school transformation and change.

Addicted to Reform

Addicted to Reform PDF Author: John Merrow
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1620972433
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The prize-winning PBS correspondent's provocative antidote to America’s misguided approaches to K-12 school reform During an illustrious four-decade career at NPR and PBS, John Merrow—winner of the George Polk Award, the Peabody Award, and the McGraw Prize—reported from every state in the union, as well as from dozens of countries, on everything from the rise of district-wide cheating scandals and the corporate greed driving an ADD epidemic to teacher-training controversies and America’s obsession with standardized testing. Along the way, he taught in a high school, at a historically black college, and at a federal penitentiary. Now, the revered education correspondent of PBS NewsHour distills his best thinking on education into a twelve-step approach to fixing a K–12 system that Merrow describes as being “addicted to reform” but unwilling to address the real issue: American public schools are ill-equipped to prepare young people for the challenges of the twenty-first century. This insightful book looks at how to turn digital natives into digital citizens and why it should be harder to become a teacher but easier to be one. Merrow offers smart, essential chapters—including “Measure What Matters,” and “Embrace Teachers”—that reflect his countless hours spent covering classrooms as well as corridors of power. His signature candid style of reportage comes to life as he shares lively anecdotes, schoolyard tales, and memories that are at once instructive and endearing. Addicted to Reform is written with the kind of passionate concern that could come only from a lifetime devoted to the people and places that constitute the foundation of our nation. It is a “big book” that forms an astute and urgent blueprint for providing a quality education to every American child.

City Teachers

City Teachers PDF Author: Kate Rousmaniere
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780807735886
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Drawing on extensive interviews with teachers of an earlier generation, Rousmaniere lets readers see the complexity of teachers' work, their problems with reform implementation, and the conditions they believed were necessary for real change. It is an important book because it raises questions about the power and legacy of teachers' historical work culture and the effect of teachers' working conditions on teacher practice and broader school reform policy.

Currents of Reform in Preservice Teacher Education

Currents of Reform in Preservice Teacher Education PDF Author: Kenneth M. Zeichner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780807734292
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of the efforts to improve the education of preservice teachers, demonstrating an awareness of the limitations of contemporary teacher education reform proposals.

Education Reform

Education Reform PDF Author: Ian C. Friedman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780816082384
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Praise for the previous edition: "...excellent...provide[s] timeless foundational information for those interested in the area of educational reform. Every academic library should have this volume."—American Reference Books Annual The effort to improve the quality, methods, and purpose of elementary and secondary schooling in the United States is known as education reform. This movement traces its origins to the inception of public schools—almost 150 years before the founding of the nation—and has both reflected and led social change in the United States. Americans widely agree that schools play an essential role in shaping the nation's future but disagree about education-related issues ranging from assimilation of immigrants and opportunity for the poor to the role of the federal government and the constitutional rights of parents and children. Today the debates on education reform center on teacher preparation and incentives, standardized testing, charter schools, homeschooling, school choice, class size, and discipline. As the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 reaches its 10-year anniversary, Americans are evaluating its nationwide impact on standards, accountability, curriculum, and failing schools. Education Reform, Revised Edition examines these and other complex issues surrounding this timely issue. Clear and logically organized, this revised volume helps students and researchers define, understand, and research this important topic. Coverage includes: Current developments regarding teacher incentives, curriculum standards, standardized tests, and homeschooling The goals and requirements of "Race to the Top," a $5 billion education grant program rolled out as part of the Obama administration's Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Extracts from documents such as The Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education (1918), A Nation at Risk (1983), the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, and the U.S. Secretary of Education's overview of key policy provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) A concise survey of the events and major debates surrounding education reform in the United States, from earliest influences through the present Up-to-date statistics on charter school enrollment and operations.

Listening to Urban Kids

Listening to Urban Kids PDF Author: Bruce L. Wilson
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791491277
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
According to the many student voices in this book, urban middle school students want teachers who "stay on them" to complete their work, maintain orderly classrooms, give them the extra help they need to succeed, explain their work clearly, draw on a variety of teaching strategies, and make their work relevant and meaningful. This book, rich in detail, brings these inner-city students' perspectives to life and issues a compelling call for urban school reform that actually touches students' daily lives.