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W. Clement Stone responds to questions on education, politics, morality, economics, and motivation. (DW)

This article closely follows an address given before the American Association of School Administrators (Atlantic City, February 18, 1969).

Suggests a logically consistent method of teaching values education in a teacher education program. The method focuses on the development and understanding of a model of the value concept combined with the continuous treatment of reality-based controversial issues. (Author/IRT)

Describes a model code that attempts to reshape education through legislation at the state level. (Author/IRT)

Lays out a beginning rationale for the inclusion of education on death and dying in the curriculum of the public schools, along with some cautionary notes concerning its implementation. (Author)

Recounts Jimmy Carter's past experiences with education and speculates about his administration's attitudes toward education. (IRT)

An attempt to detail the varied perceptions held by educators and those held by politicians. Provides the actual language they employ to justify their shared disdain. The composite quotations in the article help put the reader in "the other guy's shoes", and serve to modify behavior patterns, which help to narrow the chasm between these two key actors. (Author/JF)

Documents four kinds of discrimination against women in education, examines the evidence pointing up the discrimination, and offers a program for women in education to correct discriminatory practices. (Author/DN)

Interest in improving civic education is growing, but there’s no clear definition of what civic education should be. To understand what kinds of skills civics education should promote in students, Jack Schneider, Eric Soto-Shed, and Karalyn McGovern surveyed 100 experts and 500 ordinary citizens, asking them to name the tasks that skilled citizens engage in. The activities respondents named most frequently involved political engagement, building an informed community, interpersonal tasks, and volunteering. These findings provide a starting point for the development of civics education curricula.

Traditional teacher education and alternative teacher preparation programs struggle to recruit and retain prospective and early-career educators of color. To address this challenge, Jalene Tamerat and Clifford Lee recount their experiences as teachers and teacher educators-of color. They propose a reframing of pedagogies, curricula, and programmatic structures so they will more effectively center the cultural assets and critical perspectives among future educators of color. They share their personal reflections and offer an overview of the current educational landscape to contextualize and ground their recommendations for how teacher training programs can be more attuned to the needs of teacher candidates from minoritized and historically marginalized backgrounds.

Professional development in its current form falls short. It is unengaging, ineffective, and considered a waste of time by participants. At a time when the world is experiencing rapid change and schools are facing increasing scrutiny and mounting pressure to improve academic performance, we need professional development that works. Aleta Margolis describes how the practices of skilled improvisers can inform effective teaching and professional development that supports and uplifts teachers and their students.

Given the time and resources invested in teacher professional development, it is important to find ways to extend positive outcomes over the long term. Judith Haymore Sandholtz, Cathy Ringstaff, and Jessica Triant investigated whether modest follow-up supports influenced the sustainability of outcomes for elementary school teachers who had previously participated in science education professional development programs. Results indicate that follow-up supports reversed declines (in the years after the professional development ended) in teachers’ sense of preparedness to teach science, use of selected instructional strategies, and implementation of inquiry-based student activities in science.

Racially and ethnically minoritized students are now the majority in U.S. public schools. This demographic change, along with heightened attention to racial injustice and evidence regarding the importance of Black teachers, has renewed a decades-old push to increase their numbers. Redesigning teacher education and development to support the recruitment and retention of Black teachers requires ongoing critical understanding of their racialized experiences. Uncritical approaches to workplace diversification perpetuate deficit attitudes toward Black students and unfairly burden Black teachers. Authors Christopher J. Cormier, Elizabeth Bettini, and Kristabel Stark describe challenges novice Black teachers often face, and they suggest critical considerations for this conversation within teacher education programs and schools.

Violet Jiménez Sims, Kerry Lord, Marlene Megos, and Ushawnda Mitchell describe a new approach to addressing the gap between the racial diversity of teachers and students in U.S. public schools. The Connecticut Teacher Residency program (CT-TRP) is a grow-your-own approach to teacher training, certification, and retention that combines an academic program with a residency model while centering cultural competency. The program breaks down common barriers to the teaching profession by covering the cost of tuition, paying a living wage to candidates during their one-year residency, and helping them prepare for certification exams.

Teaching is a complex endeavor, and the pandemic era stretched teachers to their limit, leaving them in need of supports that ignite both their passion and capacity. The typical top-down mandates found in many schools need to be replaced with processes that meet teachers where they are, helping them grow so their students can grow, too. Ann Mausbach and Kim Morrison present a differentiated approach to teacher learning that adapts to teachers’ learning need. They share conditions that allow for this approach to flourish and specific practices that promote a culture of support and deep impactful learning for teachers.

The multiracial population in the U.S. increased by nearly 400% between 2000 and 2020. Author April Vazquez writes that this increase has important implications for a predominantly white workforce of teachers. Educators must respond to our nation’s changing demographics by supporting our multiracial students, which begins with recognizing this population’s unique strengths and challenges. One way to validate their experiences is by incorporating works with multiracial protagonists into classroom literature.

Middle school teacher Michael Yell and education professor Geoffrey Scheurman discuss a decades-long partnership of ongoing professional development opportunities that involve teachers, university faculty, and teacher candidates working together to create personalized, meaningful, and sustained initiatives that enhance the growth and skills of all those involved. The resulting professional laboratory includes classroom collaborations, preservice teachers shadowing students, school/university exchanges, and the ability to take advantage of learning opportunities that arise organically. The results are reciprocal, inexpensive, ongoing, administrator-approved, and self-directed professional development experiences any teacher-professor duo can consider as they build their own laboratory.

Misalignment between the mandates and structures of formal schooling and the developmental needs of boys, particularly in the humanities, is receiving increased levels of public and scholarly attention. The problems may be especially acute for low-income and minoritized children. But little guidance for identifying and implementing best and promising practices is available for educators. Tim Spitsberg and Jonathan A. Plucker outline recent work on this problem and identify some promising state- and local-level strategies for beginning the hard work of improving humanities learning for boys. They advocate pairing common-sense policy and curricular changes (improved data-sharing, curricular reviews for gender bias) with research-supported interventions (personalization, pathways programs into humanities-based learning and professions). When implemented with care, these strategies could improve the education of all students.

The school lives of students and educators have long been affected by technological changes, but the advent of digital technologies, from smartphones to social media, have amplified the effects on their daily lives. Unfortunately, school curricula rarely focus on critically examining our relationships with technologies. Daniel G. Krutka, Jacob Pleasants, and T. Philip Nichols offer a framework called the technology education iceberg to help educators plan and reflect on how they teach about technology. They argue that the science, social studies, and English subject areas offer opportunities to encourage a technoskeptical stance in students and educators that is needed for flourishing lives and democratic societies.

The academic achievement of Black boys in the U.S. has been declining, and Black male mentorship can positively change these outcomes. Schools have tried many interventions to help Black boys receive the academic, social, and emotional support they need to close the performance gap. Some case studies have proven that Black male mentorship works. Bobby J. Rodgers Jr. and Devery J. Rodgers examine Black male student academic performance and propose Black male mentoring as a solution that offers promise in closing the performance gap.

Online extremism is on the rise, with boys and young men being targeted by misogynistic social media influencers like Andrew Tate. When boys repeat comments they’ve heard online in the classroom, educators can play a role in preventing students from being further influenced by online extremism. Pasha Dashtgard, the director of research at American University’s Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL), talks to Phi Delta Kappan about the importance of prevention, the harms of toxic masculinity, and the crucial role of teachers and other educators.

Schools have become increasingly interested in social-emotional learning (SEL) over the past decade, and that interest has grown due to concern about student well-being resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is confusion around SEL. Christi Bergin, Christina Cipriano, Tia Barnes, Shannon B. Wanless, researchers who have studied and designed SEL for decades, respond to questions frequently asked by educators as they consider an SEL approach for their school. They discuss what SEL is, its benefits, how it aligns with other programs, how to select an SEL program, and where to learn more about SEL programs.

Efforts to improve education outcomes often involve lengthening the school day or the school year in hopes that spending more time in school will boost student learning. Yet, as Frederick Hess explains, U.S. students spend as much or more total time in school as their peers in other industrialized nations. What matters more than the amount of time is how that time is used. Although research into time usage at school is limited, existing studies have shown that much time spent in school time does not involve actual learning time, either because of interruptions or other non-learning activities or because students are not engaged. Hess suggests that, before adding time to the school day or year, it’s important to understand what schools are doing with their time, rethink their routines, and seek to ensure that they are using time wisely and well.

Darius O. Johnson, Briana Markoff, and Dorinda J. Carter Andrews examined data from focus groups conducted with more than 60 Black boys in midwestern high schools to learn how teachers and schools can refuse antiblackness and reimagine futures for Black boys in school. Black boys and young men want safe school environments and will create safe communal spaces when needed. They seek teachers who are culturally relevant; they want to be able to trust their teachers; and they want to be their full, authentic selves at school. Findings show how educators can work within antiblack institutions toward reducing in-school suffering while working to create better futures for Black boys in school.

Despite being regarded as the great equalizer, public education’s close ties with the market economy have made it the great perpetuator. High school teacher Jonathan Lancaster writes that public education has become a structure in which students become career ready, as opposed to world ready. Therefore, educators should shift the narrative away from the how of education, and more toward the why of education.