Trusting Teachers with School Success
What Happens When Teachers Call the Shots
By (author) Kim Farris-Berg, Edward J. Dirkswager Commentaries by Amy Junge
Publication date:
18 October 2012Length of book:
254 pagesPublisher
R&L EducationDimensions:
237x157mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781610485098
Lately, our nation’s strategy for improving our schools is mostly limited to “getting tough” with teachers. Blaming teachers for poor outcomes, we spend almost all of our energy trying to control teachers’ behavior and school operations. But what if all of this is exactly the opposite of what is needed? What if teachers are the answer and not the problem? What if trusting teachers, and not controlling them, is the key to school success?
Examining the experiences of teachers who are already trusted to call the shots, this book answers: What would teachers do if they had the autonomy not just to make classroom decisions, but to collectively—with their colleagues—make the decisions influencing whole school success? Decisions such as school curriculum, how to allocate the school budget, and whom to hire.
Teachers with decision-making authority create the schools that many of us profess to want. They individualize learning. Their students are active (not passive) learners who gain academic and life skills. The teachers create school cultures that are the same as those in high-performing organizations. They accept accountability and innovate, and make efficient use of resources. These promising results suggest: it’s time to trust teachers.
Examining the experiences of teachers who are already trusted to call the shots, this book answers: What would teachers do if they had the autonomy not just to make classroom decisions, but to collectively—with their colleagues—make the decisions influencing whole school success? Decisions such as school curriculum, how to allocate the school budget, and whom to hire.
Teachers with decision-making authority create the schools that many of us profess to want. They individualize learning. Their students are active (not passive) learners who gain academic and life skills. The teachers create school cultures that are the same as those in high-performing organizations. They accept accountability and innovate, and make efficient use of resources. These promising results suggest: it’s time to trust teachers.
While school reform has proceeded seemingly unabated for the last 50 years, the most recent proposals have, for the most part, excluded classroom practitioners from the discussion. Farris-Berg and Dirkswager (fellows, Center for Policy Studies, St. Paul, Minnesota) examine the results at schools that trust the teachers who work there to make the important educational decisions affecting the children they serve. While exploring how best to encourage autonomous teachers, the book also reviews how much independence teachers need, how educators respond to this autonomy, and how the results of their decisions can be assessed and evaluated. A large part of the work looks at eight practices that autonomous teachers embrace and that the authors suggest are necessary for a high-performing organization. These practices are explained through the use of vignettes, examples, photographs, and graphics that deepen understanding of the concepts undergirding each practice. Each of these chapters examining effective practices concludes with a series of questions and challenges related to implementation as identified by teachers assuming increased responsibility in school governance. These questions and challenges would provide ideal starting places for discussions related to these issues. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduate students and above.