Using computers to evaluate teachers based on student test scores is more difficult than it seems. Value-added modeling is a genuinely serious attempt to grapple with the difficulties. Value-added modeling carries the promise of measuring teacher quality automatically and objectively, and improving school systems at minimal cost. The essence of…

The Center for Applied Special Technology, Inc. (CAST), an educational research organization, introduced Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in its earliest form nearly 25 years ago. According to Orkwis and McLane (1998), UDL is a tangible means by which educators implement the special education requirements and sustain the gains that were…

Even as the Internet and i-devices have changed so many parts of people's lives, educational testing has not changed substantially in decades. Though researchers and educators have for years raised ample concerns about existing tests, assessments have barely evolved. Further, despite years of expanded testing and greater school accountability,…

Today's teachers and principals are facing the highest accountability measures in the history of education while also grappling with the fallout of the worst economy since the Great Depression. This unprecedented combination of high-stakes accountability and diminishing resources has led to understandable fatigue and great concern as educators…

In today's ethnically and linguistically diverse classrooms, teachers need a notion of "relevant" that allows students from vastly different backgrounds to make personal purposeful connections with their academic work. To make instruction relevant, the author suggests that it has to be meaningful and engaging to a broad range of students.…

Since the adoption of the first charter school law in Minnesota in 1991, charter schools have received considerable attention from policy makers, parents, educators, and the media. In the United States, at the national level, three consecutive presidents--Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama--have actively supported charters. Given the…

The current test-driven accountability movement, codified in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 ([NCLB] 2002), was a misguided idea that will have the effect not of improving the education of children and youth, but of indicting the public school system of the United States. To improve education in the United States, politicians, policy makers,…

The charter school movement is prepared to expand at rates once unimaginable. Yet, a glaring hypocrisy exists in the movement that education and political leaders seem eager to ignore. The charter school movement stakes its very effectiveness and value on increased levels of accountability and measurable student achievement results; but it fails…

Often, for preservice students, teacher education programs consist of a series of disjointed experiences that fail to make a connection with their fieldwork and student teaching. For example, preservice teachers typically read about how to incorporate specific teaching methods, classroom management strategies, and assessment tools into their…

In today's diverse classrooms and age of accountability, teachers need to use efficient, research-based instructional approaches that engage all students, promote interest and variety in learning and teaching, and provide immediate and continuous informal assessment data. This article presents a rationale for using active involvement techniques,…

This is a wonderfully provocative question that might be answered simply: Yes, teachers can be leaders! Much more complicated and interesting, though, are the specifics of how teachers become leaders and the different ways teachers lead. Before considering how teachers become leaders, there is a need to understand the context within which teachers…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB 2001) has the faculties of every public and charter school scrambling to drive test scores of seven identified groups of children (African-American children, Anglo-White children, children with disabilities, Hispanic children, children of poverty, children with English language limitations, and Native-American…

Skillful substitute teachers are critical to student achievement, especially in today's high-stakes accountability environment. Because teachers are absent from duty, some for short periods of time and others for lengthy time frames, schools may find it difficult to meet high academic and accountability standards without prepared substitute…

Childhood is a time when students are naturally curious and want to pursue their interests by learning all they can about the things that intrigue them. This interest-stimulated learning is a valuable template because it is compatible with the research discoveries of neuroimaging--what the brain looks like while it actively processes information.…

As societal and classroom demands for accountability increase, teacher educators are challenged to prepare and support new teachers for the realities of today's classrooms. Sometimes the preparation and the realities appear to be in conflict. University-based teacher educators may stress critical thinking and active learning. School-based teacher…