As we look into the new millennium, education is facing many challenges, and leadership is crucial. Improving teacher performance is a major goal of virtually every policymaker, and this goal is driving the agenda for school transformation and renewal. Today, researchers on university campuses, in think tanks, and in schools and state agencies are producing vast amounts of information about effective practices. But building the capacity of teachers and other educators to put these successful practices into place remains a challenge. Yet only when professional practices that have been validated as effective are widely applied will we realize high performance for all students.
State and local reform initiatives have raised the bar for student learning, placing greater demands on teachers. As a result, teachers need professional development in areas such as teaching to high standards, integrating technology into their teaching, acquiring deeper content knowledge in their field, teaching students with limited English proficiency, and teaching students with disabilities in the regular classroom (Kober & Rentner, 2000).
This renewed attention to the professional development of teachers presents a major opportunity for education organizations, which must ensure that all teachers experience high-quality opportunities for growth that also benefit their students. Education organizations must direct their efforts toward helping teachers continually grow in their ability to teach. Clearly, building the knowledge base to undergird effective professional development is vitally important.
Today, much is known about effective professional practice. It is no secret that talented teachers already use the best instructional practices every day. Yet, best research and case studies of effective practice are not widely known by practitioners. That's why ASCD's Classroom Leadership Conference 2000 presents a unique occasion for stakeholders in teachers' professional development to share information and to experience what have been identified as exemplary practices.
ASCD is also working with the other member organizations in the Learning First Alliance to support such practices. The alliance is uniquely positioned to provide leadership in the improvement of professional practice. To this end, it is planning a multiyear focus that will serve as an organizing framework for much of its work on its core goals: student achievement, safe and supportive schools, and parent and community involvement. This work will stimulate improvements by equipping the 12 alliance organizations with consensus tools and processes for improving practice that can be used with, and by, each organization's members.
Over the next six to eight months, alliance member organizations will develop a consensus document on improving professional practice. To do this, they will identify and agree on the core characteristics of schools where professional practice boosts student achievement. The alliance will conduct this analysis by first determining what teachers need to know and be able to do in classrooms; then examining school characteristics, including school leadership, that support effective teacher learning and practice; and finally considering characteristics of effective district and state supports and incentives.
Once the alliance defines these characteristics, it will identify a small number of school districts and schools within these districts that appear to meet these criteria. This process, in conjunction with the alliance document, will set the stage for powerful follow-up projects. It will also serve as a vehicle for moving forward on the agenda of the 1999 National Education Summit.
It's a great time to be in education. But we must deliver on the promise of inspiring and supporting teachers, enabling them to be better leaders and to find ways to strengthen professional practice that improves student achievement.