Search results for: Alignment (education)

This article provides a rhetorical analysis of Preparing Teachers publication reveals then critiques’ key assumptions that are shaping policies and current reform efforts in teacher education, including changes in U.S. teacher accreditation.

This article presents a qualitative case study, which examined the relationship between conversations during formal collaborative experiences and the actual classroom practice of early childhood teachers in a district, Head Start, and university lab school. Three elements related to the development of communities of practice emerged from this study: (a) parallel processes that promoted the transfer of teacher talk into practices that enriched classroom environments; (b) administratively supported collective control of curriculum by teachers promotes a practice-based focus; and (c) use of protocols actively guides the content and process of teachers’ conversations. This study illustrates the importance of group routines and intentions, collective ownership of curriculum, and their role in the development of productive parallel processes.

In this article, the authors examine how assessments in schools that participated in a class size reduction program intersected with forces of accountability. The goal of this article is to broaden the understanding of what it means for schools and teachers to be held accountable for student learning and to discuss how different accountability frameworks affect instructional practices in classrooms. The research took place in nine elementary schools across South and Central Wisconsin. The authors identify three aspects of assessment practices that affect this intersection: alignment, audience, and action.

This article describes the Boston Teacher Residency (BTR), a comprehensive teacher recruitment, preparation, and induction program created by and housed in an urban school district, the Boston Public Schools (BPS). The article argues for several core principles in the creation of such a program: a) the program serves the school district, b) the program is structured to blend theory and practice, c) the program emphasizes the selection, recruitment and support of the mentor teacher and treats the mentors as teacher educators, d) the program creates an aligned set of induction supports which extend for the first three years of the new teacher’s career, e) the program treats student achievement as its ultimate outcome.