Harvard Education PR Teacher Quality 2.0: Toward a New Era in Education Reform (Educational Innovations Series)

Debates over teacher quality are among the most heated exchanges in the education reform arena. But while scholars and policy makers grapple with questions about teacher preparation, compensation, and evaluation, the role of teachers is changing. In schools across the country, educators are experimenting with new models for recruiting, training, and supporting teachers, and are innovating strategies for deploying their talents through differentiated roles and the use of technology. Most of the policy measures currently under consideration, however, are designed with a one-size-fits-all approach.Teacher Quality 2.0 argues that much cutting-edge work in teacher quality is happening in nontraditional environments such as online or hybrid learning, where teacher roles can be very specialized, or in charter schools that are experimenting with new approaches to staffing. The editors examine fruitful innovations taking place on the margins of the traditional education sector that promise to improve teacher quality in a more strategic way. More flexible approaches to teacher quality, the editors caution, require vigilance against backwardlooking policies that “bake in” traditional assumptions about teachers’ roles.The editors of this provocative volume have convened a diverse array of contributors to explore these emerging practices and investigate how current research and policy initiatives may affect the next generation of innovation in teaching. From the Back Cover <div>Will today&#8217;s education policies fit tomorrow&#8217;s schools?<br><br> In schools across the country, educators are experimenting with new models for recruiting, training, and supporting teachers. They are using strategies like differentiated roles and the use of technology to deploy teachers&#8217; talents to best effect. However, most of the policy measures currently under consideration to ensure teacher quality are designed with a one-size-fits-all approach that threatens to constrain these cutting-edge efforts.<br><br> Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane, the editors of <i>Teacher Quality 2.0</i>, have convened a diverse array of contributors to examine promising innovations in teacher preparation, compensation, and evaluation. Together, they investigate whether current efforts to improve the quality of our nation&#8217;s teachers will be able to keep up with these innovations&#8212;or, worse, will hold them back.<br><br> Teacher Quality 2.0 is a volume in the Educational Innovation series.<br><br> &#8220;Recent changes in the state and federal stance toward teaching have been nothing short of a policy revolution. But revolutions in policy do not solve all of the underlying problems, and they create new problems of their own. <i>Teacher Quality 2.0</i> provides useful insights and new ideas on where the teacher quality revolution needs to go next.&#8221; &#8212; <b>Douglas N. Harris</b>, associate professor of economics and director of The Education Research Alliance for New Orleans, Tulane University<br><br> &#8220;Everyone talks about education reform, but systemic thinking about reform is lacking&#8212;until now. <i>Teacher Quality 2.0</i> provides rich historical context, pulls together successful elements of current reforms, and then pioneers new, systemic ways of thinking about the third rail of education&#8212;teacher quality. A must-read for anyone serious about real and lasting reform for all kids.&#8221; &#8212; <b>Rick Ogston</b>, CEO, Carpe Diem Schools<br><br><b>Frederick M. Hess</b> is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). <b>Michael Q. McShane</b> is a research fellow in education policy studies at AEI.</div> About the Author Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).Michael Q. McShane is a research fellow in education policy studies at AEI.