"No education topic is more important than how to raise the quality of teaching in America's schools. This book eloquently makes the case for reshaping teacher preparation and professional development to enhance student learning."

--Bob Chase, president, National Education Association

Leading educational thinkers and researchers deliver an in-depth overview of the issues and challenges facing the teaching profession today. This book is the first in over a decade to synthesize the most important research in the fields of teaching and teacher education. This research is also the basis for recommAndations found in What Matters Most, a landmark report from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. The authors explore promising approaches to both policy and practice in teacher learning. They also provide the substance behind policy recommAndations, examining the implications of school reforms for teaching, current knowledge about teacher preparation, and the kinds of learning opportunities teachers will need.

Teaching as the Learning Profession includes case studies of innovative approaches to school improvement, principles for better staff development, proposals for the reform of unions, and practical as well as conceptual advice on recruitment, licensing, redefining the teaching career, enhancing diversity, developing leadership, and expanding such innovations as networks and other sustained forms of teacher-to-teacher learning.

This book is based on the idea that the improvement of American education in general depends on improving the education and training of its teachers. Darling-Hammond (education, Stanford U.) and Sykes (educational administration, Michigan State U.) have added to this notion by arguing that highly qualified teachers ought to continue to enhance their professional throughout their careers. The majority of the chapters in this book were papers solicited as background analyses for the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 1994- 1996. The papers include topics such as preparing teachers for diversity; strengthening the connections between teacher and student learning; teacher recruitment, selection, and induction; and staff development and instructional improvement.
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"This book teaches us that, if the improved learning we require for all students in a democracy is to be accomplished, both the policymakers and the professionals must take joint responsibility to craft a new alliance.... Readers of this book will discover that within its pages lies an impressive array of findings, analyses, interpretations, and proposals that can guide the needed efforts to design such settings. Teaching as the Learning Profession is far more than a superb book title. It is a mandate for the stakeholders in whose hands lies the future of America's teachers, and through them, the future of America's students." --from the foreword by Lee S. Shulman, president, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

"It's common knowledge--and common sense--that the quality of teaching strongly affects student achievement. Teaching as the Learning Profession rightly advocates enhancing instructional quality by providing teachers with meaningful professional learning opportunities that allow them to continually improve their practice and enable their students to excel." --Sandra Feldman, president, American Federation of Teachers

"No education topic is more important than how to raise the quality of teaching in America's schools. This book eloquently makes the case for reshaping teacher preparation and professional development to enhance student learning." --Bob Chase, president, National Education Association

Teaching as the Learning Profession is the first volume in over a decade to offer a comprehensive, research-based overview of the changes and challenges facing the teaching profession. These are the ideas that informed the recommAndations presented in What Matters Most, a groundbreaking report from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.

LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND is Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University and executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. GARY SYKES is professor of educational administration and teacher education at Michigan State University.

Part One: Rethinking Teacher Education.

1. Developing Practice, Developing Practitioners: Toward a Practice-Based Theory of Professional Education, Deborah Loewenberg Ball and David K. Cohen.

2. Aligning Teacher Education with Contemporary K-12 Reform Visions, Magdalene Lampert and Deborah Loewenberg Ball.

3. The Role of Preservice Teacher Education, Mary M. Kennedy.

4. Preparing Teachers for Diversity: Historical Perspectives, Current TrAnds, and Future Directions, Gloria Ladson-Billings.

Part Two: Rethinking Teacher Professional Development.

5. The Essentials of Effective Professional Development: A New Consensus, Willis D. Hawley and Linda Valli.

6. Teacher and Student Learning: Strengthening Their Connection, Gary Sykes.

Part Three: Rethinking Organizations for Teacher Learning.

7. Teacher Recruitment, Selection, and Induction: Policy Influences on the Supply and Quality of Teachers, Linda Darling-Hammond, Barnett T. Berry, David Haselkorn, and Elizabeth Fideler.

8. Organizing Schools for Teacher Learning, Judith Warren Little.

9. Investing in Teacher Learning: Staff Development and Instructional Improvement, Richard F. Elmore and Deanna Burney.

10. Networks and Reform in American Education, Ann Lieberman and Maureen Grolnick.

Part Four: Rethinking Policy for Teacher Learning.

11. Organizing the Other Half of Teaching, Julia E. Koppich and Charles Taylor Kerchner.

12. The Frame and the Tapestry: Standards-Based Reform and Professional Development, Charles L. Thompson and John S. Zeuli.

13. Investing in Teaching as a Learning Profession: Policy Problems and Prospects, Linda Darling-Hammond and Milbrey Wallin McLaughlin.