ERIC Number: ED395931
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1996-Sep
Pages: 161
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: ISBN-0-9654535-0-2
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future. Report of the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future.
National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, New York, NY.
The premises of this 2-year study are: first, what teachers know and can do is the most important influence on what students learn; second, recruiting, preparing, and retaining good teachers is the central strategy for improving our schools; and third, school reform cannot succeed unless it focuses on creating conditions in which teachers can teach and teach well. This report focuses on perceived barriers to achieving these goals: (1) low expectations for student performance; (2) unenforced standards for teachers; (3) major flaws in teacher preparation; (4) slipshod teacher recruiting; (5) inadequate induction for beginning techers; (6) inadequaate professional development opportunities and few rewards for knowledge and skill; and (7) schools that are structured for failure rather than success. To address these concerns, five major recommendations are offered: get serious about standards for both students and teachers; reinvent teacher preparation and professional development; fix teacher recruitment and put qualified teachers in every classroom; encourage and reward teacher knowledge and skill; and create schools that are organized for student and teacher success. Five appendixes provide a schedule of commission meetings and forums; lists of presentations, advisers, research contributors, and commissioned papers; and state-by-state data on indicators of attention to teaching quality, July 1996. (LL)
Descriptors: Academic Standards, Accountability, Accreditation (Institutions), Change Strategies, Educational Change, Elementary Secondary Education, Futures (of Society), Higher Education, Preservice Teacher Education, Program Improvement, School Effectiveness, State Standards, Student Improvement, Teacher Certification, Teacher Education Programs, Teacher Improvement, Teacher Qualifications, Teacher Recruitment
National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, P.O. Box 5239, Woodbridge, VA 22194-5239 (Full report: $18; summary report: $5; both reports: $20; video and discussion guide: $15; both reports, video, and discussion guide: $30. Orders must be prepaid by check or money order; bulk rates available).
Publication Type: Information Analyses
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Rockefeller Foundation, New York, NY.; Carnegie Corp. of New York, NY.
Authoring Institution: National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, New York, NY.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A