Distal And Proximal Indicators Of Teacher Effectiveness

Distal and proximal indicators of teacher effectiveness

The Assessment Bridge

"Just the kind of bridge we need to span the ideological wars and make schools work for teachers and their students." Ann Lieberman Senior Scholar, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Visiting Professor, Stanford University "In her supremely well-written and useful book, Dr. Solomon has woven together historical perspective, research, and her own considerable experience to address reforming schools in the 21st Century. After defining the problem (productive change), Dr. Solomon has examined ′old′ solutions and conceptualized new ones to create better schools for students." Nancy Goldman, Director of Curriculum Pearl River School District Pearl River, NY "Standards and implementation of the learning process go hand in hand. The Assessment Bridge makes us clearly aware of the present need for a bridge between the two so that standards may not create greater failure and the rejection of formal education by many children." Matthew Foley, Pastor Epiphany Roman Catholic Church We must ensure that tests serve the needs of education--not force education to fulfill needs of test creators. The Assessment Bridge is award-winning educator Pearl Solomon′s penetrating and cogent examination of today′s high-stakes standards-based testing movement, which seems to compromise effective teaching and learning rather than improve it. Committed teachers know the importance of student assessment as a guide to classroom instruction. Restoring assessment to its proper place in the curriculum is the goal of this clear-headed analysis. Chapters cover: The origins and history of the current testing movement How good tests guide teaching and learning How to balance standardized tests, curriculum standards, and critical local variables such as class size, socioeconomics, and teacher attitudes How to build bridges from test anxiety to improved student learning, teacher training, curriculum and instruction, and school administration and leadership How to recruit, train, and nurture a new generation of talented, committed, and effective teachers Emphasizing the positive at all times, Solomon guides us toward creation of better schools where the best teachers and school leaders link tests to standards, curriculum, and improved student learning.

Handbook of Classroom Management

Classroom management is a topic of enduring concern for teachers, administrators, and the public. It consistently ranks as the first or second most serious educational problem in the eyes of the general public, and beginning teachers consistently rank it as their most pressing concern during their early teaching years. Management problems continue to be a major cause of teacher burnout and job dissatisfaction. Strangely, despite this enduring concern on the part of educators and the public, few researchers have chosen to focus on classroom management or to identify themselves with this critical field. The Handbook of Classroom Management has four primary goals: 1) to clarify the term classroom management; 2) to demonstrate to scholars and practitioners that there is a distinct body of knowledge that directly addresses teachers’ managerial tasks; 3) to bring together disparate lines of research and encourage conversations across different areas of inquiry; and 4) to promote a vigorous agenda for future research in this area. To this end, 47 chapters have been organized into 10 sections, each chapter written by a recognized expert in that area. Cutting across the sections and chapters are the following themes: *First, positive teacher-student relationships are seen as the very core of effective classroom management. *Second, classroom management is viewed as a social and moral curriculum. *Third, external reward and punishment strategies are not seen as optimal for promoting academic and social-emotional growth and self-regulated behavior. *Fourth, to create orderly, productive environments teachers must take into account student characteristics such as age, developmental level, race, ethnicity, cultural background, socioeconomic status, and ableness. Like other research handbooks, the Handbook of Classroom Management provides an indispensable reference volume for scholars, teacher educators, in-service practitioners, and the academic libraries serving these audiences. It is also appropriate for graduate courses wholly or partly devoted to the study of classroom management.