Politics of Education

In The Educational Imagination (1994), Elliot Eisner explored the ways we create and assess school curriculum. In one section, he analyzed the meaning of teaching. For Eisner, teaching achievement related to content instruction and the actions a teacher completed to encourage student success. Which concept do you adhere to in your teaching and learning approaches? Is one “correct” or more effective than the other?

Whatever concept you favor, one point is clear: school curricular choices have multiple influences. Social, historical, psychological, and philosophical pressures exert tremendous pressures on school leaders. State and national governments have interests related to education, so navigating the politics can be a formidable enterprise.

In the United States, the standards movement, the focus on testing, the No Child Left Behind Act, and reports such as A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform combine to create vigorous debates about the work of schools. As an educator, you must examine the various political viewpoints on improving education and determine how to implement them in the classroom.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Summarize methods used by effective teachers to align student work with rigorous standards
• Identify research-based models used by effective school leaders that link curriculum, assessment, and instruction to improve teaching and learning
• Describe indicators of effective PK12 literacy instruction
• Describe indicators of effective PK12 math instruction
• Describe indicators of effective best instructional practice based on theories of learning across domains
• Distinguish between assessment of learning and assessment for learning