Improving Teacher Quality in OK

Improving Teacher Quality in Oklahoma: A Closer Look by John E. Stone, Ed.D., George K. Cunningham, Ph.D., and Donald B. Crawford, Ph.D. Are teacher training and teacher quality in Oklahoma really improving? The answer depends on whom you ask . education.s providers or education.s consumers. Under the guise of vaguely stated pedagogical reforms, Oklahoma is promoting the adoption of an approach to teaching that is at odds with the educational aims of Oklahoma.s parents and taxpayers. In effect, new … Read More

Information Fuels Support for School Reform

Although a brief for the value of national standards, this survey affirms that public knowledge of local school performance facts is key to grassroots action. Our findings reveal that when respondents learn how their local schools rank in comparison to the performance of schools elsewhere in the state or in the nation as a whole, they become more supportive of school choice proposals, such as making school vouchers available to all families, expanding charter schools, and giving parents … Read More

About the Authors

Teacher Evaluation and Student Achievement (2000) by James H. Stronge and Pamela D. Tucker is part of the National Education Association’s Student Assessment Series edited by Glen W. Cutlip. It is not available online. Click here for purchase information. James H. Stronge is Heritage Professor in the Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership Area at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. One of his primary research interests is in educational personnel evaluation. He has worked with numerous educational … Read More

Teacher Evaluation and Student Achievement

(click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By James H. Stronge & Pamela D. Tucker Washington, DC: National Education Association, 2000.   Briefing Everyone wants to reward good teaching, but how to fairly and objectively measure it? Clearly, good teaching boosts student achievement but so does a student’s home life and neighborhood. The key is to measure the teacher’s contribution separately-isolated from these other influences? According to James Stronge and Pamela Tucker, two … Read More

Facing the Classroom Challenge

Facing the Classroom Challenge, Teacher Quality and Teacher Training in California’s Schools of Education (click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By Lance T. Izumi and K. Gwynne Coburn San Francisco: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, 2001.   Briefing Finally, someone has put their finger on the problem: Schools may want to improve but the teaching skills taught to their teachers aren’t up to the job In Facing the Classroom Challenge, … Read More

Parents and Schools

Parents and Schools: The 150-Year Struggle for Control in American Education (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By William W. Cutler, III Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.   Briefing Why aren’t schools more responsive to parent and taxpayer demands for improvement? Because they are a monopoly and they just don’t care? Because they are increasingly influenced by unions and put member interests ahead of the public interest? Or, is … Read More

Professionalism and the Public Good

Professionalism and the Public Good: A Brief History of Teacher Certification (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By David L. Angus Edited by Jeffrey Mirel Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 2001   Briefing Good teaching really makes a difference. Studies of teacher effectiveness show that students who get the best teachers have a significantly greater chance of succeeding in school. But does publicly regulated teacher training and licensure assure … Read More

Schoolbook Simplification and Its Relation to the Decline in SAT-Verbal Scores

This volume is not available online but copies of the American Educational Research Journal are available in most academic libraries and through the American Educational Research Association’s website: https://www.aera.net/Publications/Journals/American-Educational-Research-Journal Write to <subscriptions@aera.net> for copies of AERJ, Summer 1996, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 489-508.  

Schoolbook Simplification

Schoolbook Simplification and Its Relation to the Decline in SAT-Verbal Scores (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By Donald P. Hayes, Loreen T. Wolfer, and Michael F. Wolfe American Educational Research Journal, 33(2), 1996, pp. 489-508.   Briefing Eighth grade reading materials of today are no more difficult than the 5th grade texts of 1945. That is exactly what is reported in one of education’s most widely respected journals. Writing … Read More

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