Posted 10/21/2009 - 02:11:16pm by MichelleHynes in Encores for Education & Youth

Two interesting and important reports hit the education news this week, highlighting the role that school design and teachers' attitudes play in producing better outcomes for students.

Teachers at Work: Improving Teacher Quality Through School Design highlights how Generation Schools, an award-winning model, is re-organizing teachers' time and re-imagining professional pathways. Says the report's author, "By using both people and time strategically, the school design model illustrates that teaching could live up to its complexity and become the profession it strives to be." In just a dozen pages, the report lays out a compelling vision for using time and talent more effectively in school settings. Check it out, and look for another report featuring Generation Schools coming out soon from the Center for American Progress.

The other report, featured today in Education Week, paints a portrait of what motivates and engages today's teachers -- categorized as Idealists, Contented, or Disheartened. The report correlates teachers' attitudes about their profession to their stated beliefs about a range of issues affecting schools -- including their own efficacy in raising student achievement, and whether their students will go on to college. An aspect of the data analysis that may be of particular interest to this discussion group is its examination of teacher attitudes by age and by length of time in the profession. More detail about Teaching for a Living: How Teachers See the Profession Today is on Public Agenda's web site.

What questions would you want to ask the authors of these reports? What opportunities do you see for Encore Careers to make a difference in schools? Add your voice here!

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