Diane Ravitch has emerged as one of the most powerful forces for real education reform. She is a tireless crusader against the baseless claims that drive current educational policy and a clear-eyed visionary of what needs to be done. While at one time she left the educational community and then returned (both of which she addresses in this…

This article address the falsehoods regarding No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top legislation, the educational reformers' stance that schools are failing, the privatization movement in education, and the issues of technology in the schools. The importance of poverty is emphasized, although policymakers ignore it and advocate school…

Since becoming an educational researcher in the late 1980s, Gregory Marchant has struggled with the disconnect between what is known from educational research and what is practiced in educational policy. In fact, his dissertation looked at support for practices identified through the process-product effective teaching research from elementary and…

In the United States, but not only here, the movement to evaluate teachers based on student test scores has received powerful political and parental support. The logic is simple. From one testing occasion to another students should show growth in their knowledge and skill. Similar types of students should show similar patterns of growth. Those…

Although education is not the highest priority in this year's presidential election, the fact that education is an issue at all highlights the role of politics in education. More than for most professions, from the district to the national level, elections and political agendas shape the policies that govern classrooms. Although the teacher unions…

Personally, the authors have seen the evolution of teacher education for over 30 years. From "diagnostic/prescriptive teaching" through "reflective practice," the quality of the programs and students has improved greatly. Turning that subjective appraisal into a quantifiable evaluation is a tricky enterprise in education. However, the demand for…

The goal is to provide highly qualified teachers to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse pool of students. The question is how to do that. Although there have been a number of variations in the path to a career in teaching, only a few paths typically exist at any point in time. The traditional route finds high school graduates attending four…

Working with his daughter and her friend on a problem-solving task gave Graham Jones the opportunity to reconsider how best he might help. This document describes how he went about assisting the girls in solving the problem. In assisting, Graham decided to present the girls with a three part lesson, which would lead to the solution. He stresses…

Describes how one elementary school focused on school security in this age of increased school violence, discussing the worries that parents have about safety (which often overshadow concerns about academics) and explaining that even though youth violence has decreased overall, parents must feel secure in sending their children to school. (SM)

Three responses to an article on implications for teacher education of school violence examine: (1) teacher educators' roles in preparing teachers to detect problems in students; (2) the need for family involvement (because trying to reach students in school is too late); and (3) reasons for school violence (family influence, parent…

Contrasts the philosophical premises of behaviorism with those of humanism and cognitivism, examining behavioral contributions in three areas for educators (description and explanation of student performance and evaluation of educational interventions). Alteration of classroom environment is represented as the principal strategy for promoting…

Though teacher educators are obliged to present promising innovations, they should present them as possibilities, not absolutes. Current trends toward one-size-fits-all instructional methods, with teacher educators taking simplified conceptions of current topics and presenting them as dogma, set new teachers up for frustration and failure.…

Examines the university's role in professionalizing rural teachers, contending that lack of a substantive definition of education's public purpose creates teachers who are unprepared to contribute meaningfully to the intellectual life of their communities. Teacher preparation programs should abandon the instrumental focus and confront unique…

Action research theory and practice can help encourage preservice teachers' critical reflection. The paper reviews action research theory, discusses conceptions of reflective teaching, and examines the power of action research to shape preservice teacher reflection. Several reports of how teacher educators have used action research in practice are…

This article argues that in order to improve or change teachers' negative perceptions about including students with disabilities in their classrooms, the training of all teachers needs to occur. Currently, not all teachers have positive attitudes toward inclusion or training to work with students with disabilities. (SM)