The corporatizing and privatizing of schooling: A call for grounded critical praxis

Our review of Henry Giroux's Stealing Innocence , Alex Molnar's Giving Kids the Business , and Kenneth Saltman's Collateral Damage describes how these authors assess the problems posed by contemporary corporate influences on public schools and considers the solutions they offer to counter those influences. We also examine Henry Levin's edited collection Privatizing Education , in which various authors address research on privatization in schooling. In our analysis of this book, we highlight the underlying themes of the wide-ranging chapters. Next, we critique all four books, focusing primarily on the books by Giroux, Molnar, and Saltman. We suggest that these three authors provide a somewhat totalized and ahistorical portrait of contemporary corporate influences on schooling and offer a solution that depends on teachers acting as democratic revolutionaries, though there is no realistic possibility that teachers today would take on this role. In contrast, we call for a critical theory and practice that is grounded both in a more complex understanding of the current historical context and also in a dialogical engagement with students, teachers, parents, and other community members.     

Impact of sustained professional development in STEM on outcome measures in a diverse urban district

Sustained professional development can support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) reform. The authors describe a 3-year study of sustained professional development for 3 diverse urban schools across the salient factors of fidelity of implementation of project-based learning, development of professional learning communities, and student achievement. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The students who experienced the greatest fidelity of implementation exhibited the greatest gains (d = 1.41–2.03) on standardized test scores, while those with the lowest fidelity of implementation exhibited negative gains (d = –0.16 to –0.08). Qualitative data indicated teachers perceived there were multiple benefits from the implementation of project-based learning.     

Expected grades versus specific evaluations of the teacher as predictors of students' overall evaluation of the teacher

All teacher evaluation forms completed in the arts and sciences division of a large community college were analyzed at three levels: division-wide (N=9,080), in class groups (31 groups), and class averages (548 classes). Multiple regression was used to predict teacher rating from the other nine items on the form. At all levels, expected grade, with minor exceptions, was the least important predictor. Certain items relating to teacher characteristics as perceived by the students had a consistent impact on rating. They included the following: “tries to help students understand,” which was most important, “sincerely interested in students,” and “uses class time effectively.”     

Comments from the Editors

Second‐career individuals are entering the teaching profession in greater numbers. These older, mature individuals bring diffent experiences to teaching than do younger, traditional preservice and beginning teachers. Lyle, a second‐career teacher, began his first year of teaching in a junior high school, a setting that did not allow him to teach in ways that he believed he should. This paper presents a record of Lyle's struggles as he negotiates the role of teaching and his relationships with students. The conclusions examine some factors that mitigated against Lyles’ smooth transition into the teaching profession and suggest that second‐career teachers such as Lyle may be disadvantaged by traditional teacher education programs, the pressures under which they accept teaching positions, and their sometimes distant perspective of teachers, teacher's work, and students.