Kappan Call for Manuscripts

I thought I’d take advantage of the blog to get out the word about a Call for Manuscripts that we’ve posted.

Kappan editors will review a wide range of manuscripts related to each of the following topics. The questions listed are intended to be guides for writers and are not intended to be an exhaustive list of potential topics. Before submitting a manuscript to Kappan, please review the writers’ guidelines posted on our web site: http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/write.htm

Deadline for submissions: Jan. 15, 2010

Early childhood education

Should all children have access to early, tax-supported education programs or should those programs be limited to low-income/at-risk children? What happens to Head Start and other such early education programs if the United States moves to a universal program?

How do K-12 school systems change if schools/districts begin to include young children in education programs? What are the implications for financing schools? What are the implications for buildings? What are the implications for school culture?

How would the United States transition to a system that provided early education for all children or for low-income/at-risk children?

How would we prepare early elementary teachers differently if we knew that we were providing formal education for all children beginning at age three?

What kind of certification would be necessary if widespread early childhood education became the norm?

Developmentally, when and what kind of learning is appropriate for young children?

What non-American models of early childhood education could inform U.S. policy and practice?

Merit pay/Performance pay

What have we learned from previous experiments with merit/performance pay, particularly those that have tried to enforce accountability by linking compensation to student outcomes? Where are there examples of districts that have experimented with merit/performance pay? What do those experiments look like? What have we learned from those experiments?

What does it take to get teachers’ unions on board with merit pay/performance pay? Where are we likely to see unions go with this in the future? Does union involvement/support of merit/performance pay undermine the very reason for unions to exist? Can unions exist in an environment in which merit/performance pay becomes widespread?

How is the question of teacher evaluation addressed in various pay experiments? What are we learning about changing/improving teacher evaluations? If we fix the evaluations, do we really need to change the pay system?

What are the prospects for using value-added (growth) measures to support merit/performance pay systems?

How is teacher compensation determined outside the United States? What can the United States learn from these examples?

What’s the relationship between compensation reform and other potential or needed reforms? How would changes in teacher compensation link with other organizational or systemic changes?

The changing face of teacher education

What have schools of teacher education learned from alternate routes to teaching (teacher residency programs, New Teacher Project, Teach for America)? Will schools of teacher education survive?

What do personnel directors, principals, and other educators who hire teachers say about how schools of teacher education need to change? What do new teachers say about how well they were prepared for the reality of today’s classrooms?

What works in preparing teachers for an education system that demands results in student learning? Is there evidence from longitudinal tracking of teacher education graduates that shows a relationship between the quality of a preparation program and student learning results?

How would changes in teacher education programs affect university budgets? What impact does that have on changing those programs?

Where are there exemplary schools of teacher education? What do they look like and what can other programs learn from these exemplars?

What can the United States learn from teacher preparation programs in other nations?