There are good reasons to press President Obama and his education advisors right now to both rethink the direction of educational reform as well as to reignite the national conversation regarding school change. A second-term president faces a moment where it's natural to analyze past practices and decide to either "stay the course or to…

America is on the precipice of ruining its foundation for success. The movement toward a centralized education system through federal mandates and common curriculum and testing is threatening the very system that has contributed to America's success and that holds the potential for its future success: that is a decentralized, diverse, largely…

The United States Department of Education (USED) granted 11 states waivers (eight full waivers and three conditional waivers) to provide what the USED termed "flexibility" from meeting some of the requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Much of the flexibility relieves schools from the Adequate Yearly Progress mandate that requires…

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.…

Nearly 30 years ago, Ron Edmonds identified the instructional leadership of principals as one of the characteristics of effective schools. The connections between what principals do as instructional leaders and the successes of their schools continue to be well recognized. Principals who comprehend the significance of these linkages, however,…

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…

Backers of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law based their support on the belief that teachers and administrators primarily were responsible for low levels of achievement by America's poor. This one-sided view about who is responsible for the nation's achievement gap is both inadequate and unsupported by the evidence. The author argues that harsh…

Like never before, today's classroom teachers routinely are being asked to collaboratively analyze student data, develop or implement new mandated curricula, and assess the effectiveness of these innovations. Ironically, few preservice preparatory or in-service professional development programs actively train classroom instructors in the use of…

Action research is a form of enquiry that enables practitioners everywhere to investigate and evaluate their work. This type of research allows the practitioner--whether classroom teacher, principal, or counselor--to take the lead in improving and better understanding the inner-workings of your classroom, school, or students. Conducting action…

The latest efforts in reform and accountability, most of which are replays of efforts enacted in the early 1980s, include the use of required minimum standardized test scores to end the practice of social promotion. Greater reliance is being placed on the use of single test scores in making all or a large part of the retention decision, despite…

The shortage of teachers in America's classrooms is reaching epidemic proportions. The National Education Association (2003) predicted that nearly one million veteran teachers will retire within the next decade, and reported that the number of classrooms without qualified teachers increases each year. In this article, the authors contend that a…

Nearly every day the author responds to myriad issues related to the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). He tries to remain positive as he works through the minutiae found in federal and local educational mandates. Increasingly, however, he finds his mind escaping to a place where the focus of the conversation is on real…

Describes a New Jersey program designed to help teachers understand and use state standards and test specifications to improve instruction, without merely teaching to the test, recommending that educators explore the processes of delineation, alignment, and calibration. This ensures that teachers understand the entirety of each subject area and…

Presents five key elements of school improvement: effective leadership, teachers at the center of improvement, shared outcomes, action research as staff development, and continuous assessment. These five elements recognize the central role of teachers in lasting school improvement. They can help unlock the full potential of educators so they can…

Presents an interview with John Goodlad that focuses on the major impediments to educational renewal today, the major goals of his 1999 conference of educational leaders, what he hopes to achieve in the upcoming years, factors that impede collaboration between individuals and institutions, important educational changes that need to occur, and the…