We now have links to media coverage from Pasi Sahlberg’s recent visit to Minnesota. The Finnish education expert was only in the Twin Cities for a few days, but the impression he made on teachers, policymakers, and community members will last a long time. Amid his full schedule of speaking engagements, Sahlberg was able to make time for interviews with local education reporters when he was in the Twin Cities at the invitation of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, the Minnesota...
On October 16, a groundbreaking book authored by two Education Evolving associates was launched. Trusting Teachers with School Success confronts the existing role of teachers in public K-12 settings and asks what would teachers do if they had the autonomy not just to make classroom decisions, but to collectively—with their colleagues—make the decisions influencing whole school success?
Examining the designs and cultures of schools where teachers already call the shots, Education Evolving Senior Associates Kim Farris-Berg...
During the last few days we have been able to continue a conversation we started 4 months ago with Pasi Sahlberg.
Pasi, the leading “explainer” of the Finnish school system, has spoken to rooms full of teachers, policymakers and community members, and has been interviewed by a number of local reporters.
Regardless of the audience, everyone has the same fundamental question: How did Finland become the top school system in the world? Pasi’s latest book, Finnish Lessons provides a...
How would our education system be different if we empowered teachers to make decisions that influence the entire school? A provocative new book asserts that this approach would create the schools that many of us profess to want.
Released earlier this week, Trusting Teachers with School Success examines the designs and cultures of schools where teachers already call the shots. Authors Kim Farris-Berg and Edward Dirkswager found that teachers encourage colleagues and students to be active, ongoing learners in an effort to...
Today is a very special day for Education Evolving. We are delighted to announce today’s release of Trusting Teachers with School Success, a book that confronts the status quo of K-12 education. Authored by Education Evolving associates Kim Farris-Berg and Edward Dirkswager, the book depicts how schools could be improved if we trusted...
Our nation’s current strategy for improving schools is largely focused on controlling teachers and school operations. A new book by Education Evolving senior associates Kim Farris-Berg and Edward Dirkswager advocates the opposite – that trusting teachers is the key to school success.
Trusting Teachers with School Success, to be released October 16, asks teachers what they would...
Everybody talks about wanting good teaching. It would be nice if as a first step someone would define 'teaching'.
So far as a body can tell, listening to the discussion, teaching is whole-class instruction -- which has to be combined, of course, with 'classroom management'. A good teacher, Bill Gates said several times to the Education Commission of the States in Atlanta in July, "calms the classroom".
Endlessly it's "classroom" . . . "classroom" . . . "classroom".
But in the classroom are 25 or 30 students who differ, sometimes widely, in their backgrounds,...
The goals of improving the profession of teaching and giving teachers the authority to design better methods for learning have been central to the work of Education Evolving and its associates for more than three decades. We believe teachers who have authority and accountability for the decisions influencing whole-school success, are in the best position to lead innovation and improvement. Trusting teachers, and not controlling them, is a promising improvement strategy to pursue.
Two of our senior associates, Kim...
Originally published in Education Week September 25, 2012, Vol. 32, Issue 05.
Last month, in his much-lauded speech to the Republican National Convention, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made "we believe in teachers" one of his central themes. This prompts the questions: What does it mean to believe in teachers? And, do we?
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