In this article, the authors suggest that starting a new job is inherently confusing. Using an EntryPlan can transform that confusion into a resource for better decision making by enabling three kinds of timely learning: learning about your new workplace, learning about yourself, and collective learning about new ways of approaching vexing…

Using primary sources in history classes is all the rage. But if teachers are not reflective about the best use of such materials, they may engage students in exercises that are neither historically nor instructionally sound. In this article, the author points out common misconceptions about primary sources and suggests ways to maximize their…

Social studies and history have taken a back seat to other subjects in recent years, but the author argues that there is far too much at stake to allow these important fields to become irrelevant. To drive home the point, in this article, he shares a story about the 9/11 Commission, that made headlines in 2004.

The key to improving student achievement, the author asserts, is to pay attention to child and adolescent development. If this factor is overlooked, new approaches to curriculum, instruction, and assessment will have little chance of succeeding. But even troubled districts that have made development a priority have seen remarkable success. The…

Educational leaders are often asked how to reduce the alarming percentage of new teachers who leave the profession when their careers have barely started. But an equally important question--and one that is rarely addressed--is, What can be done to keep effective veteran teachers from retiring when schools need their wisdom, insight, and maturity?…

When preservice teachers graduate and obtain their first teaching position, it is hoped that they have taken the first step on a creative path toward becoming professional educators. Naturally, it is expected that these novice educators will get support from both experienced colleagues and administrators, who often serve as their mentors. Such…

This article marks the 11th entry in a continuing series of biennial articles that have reported on surveys of the editors of more than 50 prominent education journals. The current survey differs from the previous 10 in that it had a 68% rate of return, compared to an average of over 90% for the others. With the previous surveys, the author…

Today's educators live in fear of the draconian consequences of failing to make adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act. In this article, the author offers sage advice on how to "comply" with the law and not get hurt. In this analysis, the author also offers guidance to his public school colleagues who, yearning to dodge the…

Each Fall, the nation's newspapers are filled with laments over the decline in the writing skills of college students. What makes this trend especially depressing is that a good many of the complaints are leveled by those who should know better--writing teachers. Today's students, "don't know how to--or even care to--express their views," churn…

What does it mean that Oscar-winner Hilary Swank's growing up in a trailer park is a big deal, that the author's son's education taught him his "broken home" puts him at risk, and that her niece used derogatory terms that could just as easily have been applied to her as to her enemy? The author thinks it says something about people's…

Gerald Bracey has been dismayed at the uncritical acceptance of international comparisons in this country. It seems to him that otherwise competent researchers and psychometricians abandon all critical facilities when dealing with data from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement--the TIMSS studies and PIRLS--or…

This examination of a case that is seeking to determine whether a district in Tennessee met its obligation under the Individuals with Disabilities Act to provide a "free appropriate public education" to a student with autism concludes that the courts' decisions to date are already literally remarkable for several reasons. These reasons include the…

This article discusses the issue of trust in the education system. What is different about the issue of trust in the education system is the assault upon it, sometimes overt but most often subtle. There is a difference between strong criticism and willful manipulation. The nation's schools are responding to the former--perhaps too slowly for…

This article focuses on the change of student health and nutrition issues in education policy deliberations. The policies that contribute to much-needed strategies to keep health needs in check are described in this article. As the costs of medical care continue to increase and affect the economies of all states, the author suggests politicians…

In this article, the author presents a master class that vividly demonstrates the dynamic interaction between process and reflection that is a widely recognized feature of art making and learning and has spawned process-based approaches to educational assessment. Process-based assessment distinguishes itself from "good/bad" and "right/wrong"…