Beyond Anthologies
Why teacher choice and judgment matter
Linda Christensen
A veteran teacher laments the trend toward mandated curriculum and argues that teachers should choose materials that address students’ lives and social issues.
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Rhetoric or Reality?
Do small schools change teaching practice?
Linda Christensen
Do small schools change teaching practice?
My First Year as a Teacher of Color
Teaching Against the Grain
Juan Córdova
A teacher of color writes about obstacles he faced during his first year in the classroom and the support he received — and did not receive — from other teachers and administrators.
The Educational Costs of Standardization
More testing might sound nice as a policy soundbite. But as Texas shows, the move toward high-stakes tests shortchanges learning in the classroom.
Linda McNeil
More testing might sound nice as a policy soundbite. But as Texas shows, the move toward high-stakes tests shortchanges learning in the classroom.
Tales From An Untracked Class
Linda Christensen
It’s teacher “work” day — two days before students arrive — and I’m trying to reconstruct my classroom between faculty, department, and union meetings. Mallory leans over my desk, her […]
Crisis, Change, and Canceling the Teacher Performance Assessment
Carolina Valdez, Farima Pour-Khorshid, and Stephanie Cariaga
As former K–12 teachers who are now teacher educators in California, we share grave concern regarding the expectation for preservice teachers to complete their Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) in order […]
The Power of Teaching Poetry
A Conversation Between Renée Watson and Linda Christensen
Christensen and Watson discuss powerful strategies for teaching writing — and deeply grounding curriculum in students’ lives through poetry.
Getting to the Heart of Quality Teaching
the Editors of Rethinking Schools
Catchy slogans, top-down mandates and shallow reforms won’t improve teacher quality. Real progress will only happen if teachers, parents, teacher unions and school and community leaders all play a role.
They Deserve Good Teaching, Too
Social justice in a classroom for students with autism
Leanna Carollo
A teaching assistant working with students with autism realizes the behavior modification-based teaching strategies she is told to use are robbing her students of voice and independence. She tries something else instead.
Cincinnati’s Teacher Union Tackles Quality
Despite complexities and shortcomings, the district's teacher quality initiatives are making a difference
Barbara Miner
It’s difficult and complex work, but this city’s teacher quality initiatives are making a difference.
Israeli Apartheid: A Simulation
Orange Bags, Green Bags, Red Bags, Blue Bags
Suzanna Kassouf
A high school teacher and co-editor of Teaching Palestine details a classroom simulation revealing some of the inequities Palestinians face throughout Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Teaching in the Undertow
Advice for new teachers on resisting of schooling-as-usual
Gregory Michie
Advice for new teachers on how to survive their first years.
Bamboozled by the Texas Miracle
Texas is the model for President Bush's education agenda. As this Texas teacher warns, Watch out! Your classroom may never be the same.
Teddi Beam-Conroy
Texas is the model for President Bush’s education agenda. Your classroom may never be the same.
Ebonics: Myths and Realities
Mary Rhodes Hoover
A point-by-point rebuttal to some of the prevailing myths about Ebonics, literacy among African-American children and education.
Rethinking Curriculum
David Levine
The restless spirit of curriculum reform stalks the educational landscape. It is conjured up from the cries of battle. weary teachers, from parents whose children aren’t learning, from business people […]
Our House Is on Fire — Time to Teach Climate Justice
Column: Earth, Justice, and Our Classrooms
Bill Bigelow
In the latest installment of our regular column “Earth, Justice, and Our Classrooms,” Rethinking Schools curriculum editor Bill Bigelow writes about global youth activism around climate justice and the urgency of the crisis, and introduces readers to the Zinn Education Project’s Teach Climate Justice campaign.
Steady Work
Linda Darling-Hammond
An insightful look at a country that decided to invest in teachers and social support instead of standardized testing.
Forward…Into the Past
Traditional approaches to teaching are back in vogue. Get ready for a return to memorization and recapitulation of accepted facts – and don’t forget to keep those desks in straight rows.
Teaching and Cultural Competence
What does it take to be a successful teacher in a diverse classroom?
Gloria Ladson-Billings
What does it take to be a successful teacher in an urban classroom? An excerpt from Ladson-Billings’ new book, Crossing to Canaan.
Transforming Teacher Education
UCLA's Center Xsets out to help Los Angeles' struggling schools
Barbara Miner
UCLA’s Center Xsets out to help Los Angeles’ struggling schools.
The Evolution Of Creationism
Right-Wing Zealots Attack Science
Leon Lynn
The lead article of a Rethinking Schools special report about right-wing efforts to dress up religious dogma as pseudo-science, keep the theory of evolution out of U.S. schools, and wipe away the separation between church and state.
Who Is Allowed to Teach Spanish in Our Public Schools?
Documenting the Consequences of the edTPA
Sarah Jourdain
The director of a world language teacher preparation program argues for an end to the edTPA because it bars native Spanish speakers from public school classrooms.
Embracing Ebonics and Teaching Standard English
An interview with Oakland teacher Carrie Secret
This 31-year veteran of Oakland classrooms explains the effects of the Standard English Proficiency program, which recognizes the systematic, rule-governed nature of “Black English” while helping students learn Standard English, and how respect and cultural awareness can help teachers reach their students.
Letters to the Editors 25.1
PACT: Intrusion or Opportunity to Learn? I just read Ann Berlak’s piece, “Coming Soon to Your Favorite Credential Program: National Exit Exams”(Summer 2010). Professor Berlak makes substantive arguments about the dangers […]
Doing Race Talk with Teachers
How to stay in the conversation
Dyan Watson
A teacher-educator describes how she keeps her students talking about race, even when it’s uncomfortable — and shows how those conversations make better teachers.