Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Achievement

Devotees of professional development for teachers will be interested in this thoughtful paper by Harvard education professor Richard F. Elmore, published by the Albert Shanker Institute. In 40 pages, he contends that more and better professional development is an "imperative." He explains (in fairly general terms) how to improve today's standard-issue professional development and what conditions must obtain in a school for it to have the desired effect on teacher practice and student performance. He concludes that there's generally enough professional-development money in the education system but that much is being mis-spent. He also points to some of the political and organizational barriers in the way of improving this situation, having mostly to do with dicey changes in roles, responsibilities and power relationships within schools. Insightful and welcome, if somewhat abstruse. You can request a free copy by sending an e-mail to [email protected].