How Stakeholders Can Support Teacher Quality compiles the proceedings from the Milken Family Foundation's National Education Conference (NEC), which took place in Washington, D.C., in May 2006. Each year, the NEC brings together practitioners, policymakers and private sector representatives to focus on critical issues in education. This work expands on the ideas and themes discussed in the first three volumes in this series on education policy: The first volume-Talented Teachers: The Essential Force for Improving Student Achievement-examined the importance of teacher quality. As the second in the series, Improving Student Achievement: Reforms that Work, introduced reform ideas and programs that positively impact both teacher quality and student work. The Challenges of School Reform: Implementation, Impact and Sustainability deepened these discussions by exploring the answers to questions regarding ensuring the longevity and sustained success of effective school reform. How Stakeholders Can Support Teacher Quality examines the roles of teachers, the education sector, the government sector and the private sector in enhancing teacher quality. From the building level to the federal level, panelists sought to provide insight from their individual and collective endeavors to improve the quality of today's teaching force to significantly impact the future.

Improving Student Achievement: Reforms that Work expands on the first volume in the Milken Family Foundation series on education policy, ""Talented Teachers: The Essential Force for Improving Student Achievement."" The series explains to policymakers, parents, business leaders, and teachers the importance of teacher quality in increasing student achievement. This volume is based primarily on the proceedings from the 2004 Milken National Education Conference (NEC), which was held in Washington, D.C., in May 2004. Reform of any kind is an arduous process. It requires forward thinking, hard work, collaboration, and commitment on the part of teachers, administrators, policy leaders, and other supporters of the endeavor. Education reform in particular can be especially difficult due to the many ingrained features of our current K-12 system; however, it is vital to learn from our past mistakes and break the cycle of failed efforts in order to fix the system that is the lifeblood of our country's future success. These proceedings provide insights into some of those past efforts as well as some of the current initiatives that provide optimism and hope in schools across the country. From these examples, we recognize that it is imperative that we improve student achievement by embracing reforms that work.

This book, The Challenges of School Reform: Impact, Implementation, and Sustainability, explores why reforms todate have failed to live up to expectations, and it discusses promising practices and strategies for sustaining increased student achievement. This work expands on the ideas and themes discussed in the first two volumes in this series on education policy: The first book-Talented Teachers: The Essential Force for Improving Student Achievement-examines the importance of teacher quality. Years of research have repeatedly confirmed what we inferred to be true-outside of the home environment, the quality of a student's teacher has the strongest impact on learning. After talented teachers were found to be a powerful component for bettering education, the second book-Improving Student Achievement: Reforms that Work-introduces reform ideas and programs that positively impact both teacher quality and student work. Now, The Challenges of School Reform: Implementation, Impact, and Sustainability deepens these discussions by exploring the answers to questions regarding ensuring the longevity and sustained success of effective school reform.

Here is a short edited volume that brings together in one place, the best scholarly articles in charter schooling by national experts and leaders, written in a user-friendly fashion. It is the ideal introduction for those interested in the charter school movement with numerous insights for and by charter operators, administrators, and teachers as well as the academic community. The volume starts with essays explaining the history of education reforms past, in particular why their failures make charters a necessity. Additional essays examine such research questions as whether class size matters, how to end the teacher shortage, routes to alternative certification, why urban school reform fails, and how to make merit pay work. The second section includes essays outlining the key research on charter schools. Chapters examine such questions as how charter schools compare to district schools, how non-profit charters compare to for-profit charters, what determines teacher quality, and how the small size of charters makes for complex questions of accountability. The final section includes personal reflections, tips and horror stories from charter operators. In particular, essays examine why most charters have a tough first year, the difficulties of converting a private school to a charter, how to manage facilities, how to obtain grant money, and how to do good charter marketing.

How Stakeholders Can Support Teacher Quality compiles the proceedings from the Milken Family Foundation's National Education Conference (NEC), which took place in Washington, D.C., in May 2006. Each year, the NEC brings together practitioners, policymakers and private sector representatives to focus on critical issues in education. This work expands on the ideas and themes discussed in the first three volumes in this series on education policy: The first volume-Talented Teachers: The Essential Force for Improving Student Achievement-examined the importance of teacher quality. As the second in the series, Improving Student Achievement: Reforms that Work, introduced reform ideas and programs that positively impact both teacher quality and student work. The Challenges of School Reform: Implementation, Impact and Sustainability deepened these discussions by exploring the answers to questions regarding ensuring the longevity and sustained success of effective school reform. How Stakeholders Can Support Teacher Quality examines the roles of teachers, the education sector, the government sector and the private sector in enhancing teacher quality. From the building level to the federal level, panelists sought to provide insight from their individual and collective endeavors to improve the quality of today's teaching force to significantly impact the future.

This book, The Challenges of School Reform: Impact, Implementation, and Sustainability, explores why reforms todate have failed to live up to expectations, and it discusses promising practices and strategies for sustaining increased student achievement. This work expands on the ideas and themes discussed in the first two volumes in this series on education policy: The first book-Talented Teachers: The Essential Force for Improving Student Achievement-examines the importance of teacher quality. Years of research have repeatedly confirmed what we inferred to be true-outside of the home environment, the quality of a student's teacher has the strongest impact on learning. After talented teachers were found to be a powerful component for bettering education, the second book-Improving Student Achievement: Reforms that Work-introduces reform ideas and programs that positively impact both teacher quality and student work. Now, The Challenges of School Reform: Implementation, Impact, and Sustainability deepens these discussions by exploring the answers to questions regarding ensuring the longevity and sustained success of effective school reform.

Improving Student Achievement: Reforms that Work expands on the first volume in the Milken Family Foundation series on education policy, ""Talented Teachers: The Essential Force for Improving Student Achievement."" The series explains to policymakers, parents, business leaders, and teachers the importance of teacher quality in increasing student achievement. This volume is based primarily on the proceedings from the 2004 Milken National Education Conference (NEC), which was held in Washington, D.C., in May 2004. Reform of any kind is an arduous process. It requires forward thinking, hard work, collaboration, and commitment on the part of teachers, administrators, policy leaders, and other supporters of the endeavor. Education reform in particular can be especially difficult due to the many ingrained features of our current K-12 system; however, it is vital to learn from our past mistakes and break the cycle of failed efforts in order to fix the system that is the lifeblood of our country's future success. These proceedings provide insights into some of those past efforts as well as some of the current initiatives that provide optimism and hope in schools across the country. From these examples, we recognize that it is imperative that we improve student achievement by embracing reforms that work.