In the early 1980s, process-product research to determine effective teaching practices was replacing efforts to "teacher-proof" the curriculum. Now 30 years later, although both these efforts did not lead to hoped-for changes, scientifically based research and data-driven instruction dominate the improvement discourse. Given the current…

Today, Americans face a challenge to the organization of higher education that, however it is resolved, will transform the enterprise. That challenge goes under the name "learning outcomes," or sometimes "accountability." It is a challenge brought largely by those outside higher education and is based on criticisms of the…

The process of effective teaching--teaching that directly leads to student learning of standards-based content--is tenuous at best and easily disrupted by contextual and behavioral factors. In this commentary, I discuss the role of student support and mediation in teacher effectiveness and curricular reform. The most vocal students in physical…

More than seven years ago, President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) into law. Sweeping calls for testing, intervening in persistently low-performing schools, and policing teacher quality made it the most ambitious legislation on K-12 schooling in American history. The law, due for congressional reauthorization in 2007, still…

This article presents an interview with Richard F. Elmore on the need for educators to develop a collective practice. Elmore is the Gregory R. Anrig professor of educational leadership at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He is also the co-director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE). His research…

Kindergarten has changed significantly in the last two decades: children now spend more time being taught and tested on literacy and math skills than they do learning through play and exploration, exercising their bodies, and using their imaginations. Many kindergartens use highly prescriptive curricula geared to new state standards and linked to…

NCLB's emphasis on seeing to it that all classrooms are staffed by highly qualified teachers is commendable. Teacher competence is the most important factor in student learning. The ability to define that competence had been gradually emerging from research and policy making before NCLB, but the law, unfortunately, is loosening its grasp on a…

The locus of control in teacher education has been outside the hands of those who educate our nation's teachers for more than a century. Essentialists have long controlled the agenda for public schooling in America, and it is evident as well that their influence has prevailed in both the form and function of teacher education. The authors suggest…

Few educational problems have received more attention than has the failure to ensure that the nation's classrooms are staffed by qualified teachers. Many states have pushed for more-rigorous preservice teacher education, training, and certification standards. Moreover, a host of recruitment initiatives have attempted to increase the supply of…

In recent years, the debate over teacher quality and preparation has gained new urgency. Competing groups of partisans have dominated this debate: one seemingly eager to assail the nation's education schools and to suggest that there is an insufficiently defined body of professional teaching knowledge, the other committed to advancing…

The rigorous assessment and accountability provisions in the landmark No Child Left Behind Act are challenging educators to explore new ways to improve instruction in the nation's schools. One powerful tool in this transformation is technology. To generate and share ideas on how technology can assist educators, two technology summits are convened…

The federal "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB), the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, seeks to improve student learning by setting high standards for academic achievement and putting into place basic school and district requirements to frame the improvement effort. Among those requirements considered to…

A report recently released by the Center on Education Policy reveals that the four-year-old No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has indeed served to shine a light on the importance of professional development for K-12 educators. Beyond that basic fact, though, any real broad-based impact on the training of educators remains inconclusive. While the…

In this article, four urban high school students and their student leadership and social justice class advisor address the question, "What are high school students' perspectives on the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act's (NCLB) definition of a highly qualified teacher?" As the advisor to the course, Garcia challenged her students to examine…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which is regarded as the most significant federal education policy initiative in a generation, was signed into law on January 8, 2002. The purpose of this law is to ensure that each child in America is able to meet the high learning standards set forth by the state in which he or she lives. One of the specific…