The first generation of implementation analysts discovered the problem of policy implementation—the uncertain relationship between policies and implemented programs—and sketched its broad parameters. The second generation began to unpack implementation processes and to zero in on relations between policy and practice. Together, these examinations generate a number of important lessons for policy, practice, and analysis; for example: policy cannot always mandate what matters to outcomes at the local level; individual incentives and beliefs are central to local responses; effective implementation requires a strategic balance of pressure and support; policy-directed change ultimately is a problem of the smallest unit. These lessons frame the conceptual and instrumental challenge for a third generation of implementation analysts—integrating the macro world of policymakers with the micro world of individual implementors.

Learning From Experience: Lessons From Policy Implementation

The Mentor Phenomenon and the Social Organization of Teaching

This article reports the results of analyses of data from a national survey of teachers regarding their views on the effectiveness of different sources of learning to teach. It examines differences in teachers' views according to grade level taught and school setting. The findings are discussed with respect to developing and enhancing sources of teacher learning. This discussion focuses on the knowledge demands of practicing teachers, the types and forms of knowledge that are likely to be conveyed by different learning sources, and the importance of the organizational proximity of learning sources to teachers' work in classrooms. Overall, the findings suggest important relationships between new knowledge and the contexts of teachers' classrooms and between learning and practice.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1001721.pdf

Teachers' Views of the Effectiveness of Sources of Learning to Teach

This article provides historical overviews of the conceptual and research and development focus of teacher evaluation, teacher effectiveness and school effectiveness research in the USA. Pertinent literature is cited and arguments are made that these lines of inquiry have coexisted for nearly four without adequate integration. With the fourth stage of school effectiveness research in process, there is a recognition that within school context variables, particularly teacher effectiveness, have important effects on school improvement and school outcomes. Similarly, there is the recognition that findings from school effectiveness research have relevance for studies of teacher effectiveness and ongoing developments in teacher evaluation. Examples of: (a) new generation, learner-centered teacher evaluation systems in the USA that are informed by teacher and school effectiveness research; and (b) the fourth stage of school effectiveness research are described. It is proposed that these lines of research should be merged as completely as possible.

Teacher Evaluation, Teacher Effectiveness and School Effectiveness: Perspectives from the USA

A much neglected reason for the limited contribution of research to the understanding and improvement of educational practice is the mismatch between educational research methodologies and the generic features of practice. Increasing the match requires an account of practice that clarifies its methodological implications. I propose a problem-based methodology (PBM) in which practices are treated as solutions to practical problems and explained by inquiry into the problem-solving processes that gave rise to them. Such inquiry is guided in PBM by a constraint inclusion account of a problem and a set of criteria for debating solution adequacy. The implications of this account for the conduct and contribution of educational research are developed through a detailed discussion of recent research on school tracking.

Methodology and the Research-Practice Gap

—Reviewed by I'atricia M Domhart, Butler Senior High School, Hutler, Pennsylvania. Maeroff documents the course of the CHART program, which sought to im prove teaching in the arts and humani ties and to empower teachers. The au thor describes how the program brought together public sch<x>l educa tors and corporate and university per sonnel. He uses three guiding princi ples, "status, knowledge, and access to power," in evaluating the extent of teachers' empowerment. Maeroffs in tensity gives life to a wealth of data. This work offers anecdotes—for ex ample, the story of the teacher forced to conduct class in a restroom and the effects of giving teachers business cards—but also acknowledges the many complicated factors of school life. Presented clearly are the pitfalls— including bureaucratic paralysis, the insecurities of superintendents and principals, the impact of school boards, and the still hazy role of the unions—that complicate the path to reform. The goals of the CHART project were reached, and the book concludes with descriptions of nine projects that demonstrably improved both the teaching of the humanities and the lives of teachers This book bears such strong testi mony to the power of classroom teachers that it ultimately raises a dis turbing question If teachers can wield influence, earn respect, and act profes sionally, then why are they content to wait for "empowerment" to be be stowed upon them? Available from the Teachers College Press, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, for $11.95, Continuing to Learn: A Guidebook for Teacher Development Susan Loucks-ttorsley Andover, Mass The Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast ______and Islands, 1987______

Teacher Evaluation: Improvement, Accountability, and Effective Learning

/pdf/teacher-evaluation-learning-for-improvement-and-59yume2ptx.pdf

Milbrey Wallin McLaughlin

Papers

Teacher Evaluation: Improvement, Accountability, and Effective Learning

Teacher Evaluation: Learning for Improvement and Accountability and Case Studies.