In the spring of 2005, Thomas L. Friedman’s The World Is Flat arrived in the bookstores—whoops, I mean, was announced to prospective readers through Amazon.com—suggesting with its provocative title that the world has changed beyond all recognition. In this new universe, Friedman explains, the rise of the Internet and the creation of a global fiber-optic network have made it possible for people all over the world to work together in ways never before possible. They can “plug and play, collaborate and compete, share knowledge and share work.”
Here at Educational Leadership we ponder how this world-flattening change alters answers to the age-old question: What must school leaders do to prepare students for the future? The following selections, one article from each issue of Educational Leadership in the 2004–2005 publishing year, tell educators how to ride the wave of change while holding on for dear life to instructional priorities.
Teaching for Meaning
As teaching time becomes more precious, educators who want to stay in touch with their students must make learning authentic. This issue addresses how teachers can foster deeper understanding in students. While shadowing 130 high schoolers, Sam M. Intrator (p. 2) found that many were suffering from extreme passivity in class. Teachers who were “relentlessly attuned to the attention-scape of their classroom,” however, offered an effective “anti-boredom pedagogy.” Intrator describes that approach in “The Engaged Classroom.”
Writing!
Writing is claiming its rightful place as a skill to be taught in the curriculum, more essential than ever in the day of instant messaging, blogs, and hyperlinks. The requirement for writing samples on state accountability exams is evidence of the new focus. But is the five-paragraph format the best we can teach students? Can electronic evaluation really judge good writing? How can teachers improve students’ writing skills? Authors in this issue grapple with these questions. In “The Power of Voice” (p. 6), Tom Romano describes how he gets his students to put words fearlessly on paper and use writing to communicate as well as to express themselves. This issue received an APEX Award for excellence in writing.
Closing Achievement Gaps
In almost every country today, an achievement gap threatens to withhold the transformational power of education from a portion of the population. This issue examines the diverse factors that correlate with student achievement—from birth weight to television watching, teacher preparation to curriculum rigor, school safety to class size. In “The Threat of Stereotype,” Joshua Aronson (p. 10) offers psychological insight. His studies about tests and anxiety reveal that we are all vulnerable to stereotype threat. Giving students the confidence to believe in their own ability to learn is a powerful gap closer. We are pleased to note that this article won a finalist distinction in the Learned Article category from the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP).
Educating Language Learners
In some countries, multilingualism has long been a basic necessity; in others, the flattened world makes knowing several languages an indisputable asset. In the United States, where a new wave of immigration is rolling in, students represent enormous diversity in terms of both language and proficiency. This issue tackles the challenges associated with educating language learners. Deborah Short and Jana Echevarria suggest in “Teacher Skills to Support English Language Learners” (p. 16) ways in which content-area teachers can incorporate academic language objectives into their lesson plans. This issue of Educational Leadership won the 2005 AEP Distinguished Achievement Award for One-Theme Issue and the 2005 APEX Grand Award for overall excellence.
How Schools Improve
How do you measure school improvement? Do you look at test scores? If so, which ones? Do you look at efforts to align curriculum with standards, dropout rates, community participation, efforts to improve teacher quality, school safety, equitable use of resources, or all of these elements? David J. Ferrero examines the underlying philosophy of good schools, arguing that there can be multiple paths to reform. In “Pathways to Reform: Start With Values” (p. 21), he reminds educators that many choices are irreducibly values-based. This issue was honored by APEX for its outstanding cover.
Learning From Urban Schools
Stereotypes about cities are eroding, demographers tell us. Throughout all rings of the metropolitan area—from inner city to remote suburb to small town—poverty, diversity, wealth, and education are well represented. Although some distinct challenges remain for each locale, more and more we’re finding that we can learn from one another. Passing along insights they gleaned from observing successful urban teachers, Dick Corbett, Bruce Wilson, and Belinda Williams (p. 27) highlight educators who share a common belief: It’s their job to convince all students that they have “No Choice But Success.”
The Adolescent Learner
How do educators reach students who learn things from iPods and Google that their seniors have not yet heard about? Around the globe, young people are healthier and more sophisticated than they used to be thanks to better health care and exposure to multimedia. Yet their worldliness does not necessarily mean they know what they need to know. This issue looks at providing adolescent students with an interactive teaching style, a more relevant curriculum, and a voice in their own education. In “Reach Them to Teach Them,” Carol Ann Tomlinson and Kristina Doubet (p. 31) highlight four successful teachers who engage students deeply in rigorous and demanding learning.
Supporting New Educators
With all the career choices open today, the profile of those entering the teaching profession is an untraditional one. Many newcomers are not intent on making teaching a lifetime commitment. This issue focuses on how to retain the best of the new crop of educators who are so essential to achieving reforms in education and rising to the many challenges described in all the issues of Educational Leadership. In “Bridging the Generation Gap” (p. 38), Susan Moore Johnson and Susan M. Kardos advise principals on how to bring veteran and new educators together to create a true learning organization.
Thanks to all our authors for sharing their insights with their fellow educators.
