Early childhood educators have begun to quietly move away from their long-advocated “developmentally appropriate practice” doctrine because it fails to serve disadvantaged children. Tens of thousands of teachers and teacher-educators, however, know little else. Stone (2009) https://education-consumers.org/pdf/Stone_PK.pdf
Professors say its how you learn, not what you learn that is important. Public Agenda (1997) https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED415180
“The professional courses exposed me to many philosophies, which were valuable, but I was totally unprepared for the impact of teaching itself.” The greatest weakness of the courses offered in teacher education programs, according to the survey responses is that they are so enamored of theory they are of no practical use. “Get rid of all those theory courses and replace them with subject-specific grade-specific strategy/methodology courses supported by the goals and objectives courses,” was the comment of a … Read More
U.S achievement could reach that in Canada and Finland if we replaced with average teachers the least effective 5 to 7 percent of teachers. That degree of change in average teacher effectiveness would increase the annual growth rate of the United States by 1 percent of GDP–a multi-trillion dollar per year outcome. Hanushek (2011) http://hanushek.stanford.edu/publications/valuing-teachers-how-much-good-teacher-worth
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
An Occasional Paper by J. E. Stone October 15, 2004 Briefing Government mandated measures such as the No Child Left Behind Act and New York City’s program to retain failing third graders would be unnecessary if the grades contained in student report cards were accurate indicators of student progress. In practice, however, objective tests and remedial programs are needed because many teachers worry more about discouraging their pupils than providing an accurate report. They are motivated by a … Read More
By J.E. Stone, Ed.D. President Education Consumers Foundation April 7, 2010 On March 29, the U.S. Department of Education announced that Tennessee was one of just two states to receive a Race to the Top (RTTT) grant in the first phase of the competition. Within minutes – before reviewers’ scoring notes had even been released – pundits proclaimed that stakeholder buy-in, particularly union buy-in, was the determining factor. Their take and their skepticism were not unwarranted. In our … Read More
John Hattie (2008) There is a wealth of educational research that shows some schooling and teaching practices (called evidence-based) consistently produce measurably superior learning outcomes. Unfortunately, teachers are rarely trained in the use of them. Instead, teachers are exposed to a variety of theories and prescriptions from which they are expected to pull together a teaching style that best fits their preferences and the classroom circumstances they confront. http://visible-learning.org/
Louisiana Board of Regents (2013) Louisiana has been reporting on the effectiveness of training programs since 2000. https://regents.la.gov/divisions/planning-research-and-academic-affairs/academic-affairs/teacher-education-initiatives/teacher-preparation-transformation-1-0-and-2-0/teacher-preparation-transformation-1-0-1999-2012/teacher-preparation-education-policy-and-guidelines/institutional-reports-for-preparation-of-teachers/
RAND (2014) Value-added measures of teaching and schooling in Tennessee and elsewhere affirm that effective teaching is indispensable to improved student achievement. Schools and districts with top performing teachers are the ones that do the most to lift the achievement of their students. Schools and districts with an overload of low performing teachers can put even advantaged students at risk by letting them slide away from the excellence of which they are capable. https://www.rand.org/education-and-labor/projects/measuring-teacher-effectiveness/teachers-matter.html