Hugging the middle : how teachers teach in an era of testing and accountability / Larry Cuban.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cuban, Larry.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Teachers--United States.

Teachers.

United States.

Teaching--United States.

Teaching.

Educational accountability--United States.

Educational accountability.

Physical Description:

vii, 104 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Teachers College, Columbia University, [2009]

Summary:

Larry Cuban's How Teachers Taught has been widely acclaimed as a pathbreaking text on the history and evolution of classroom teaching. Now Cuban brings his great experience as a classroom teacher, superintendent, and researcher to this highly anticipated follow-up. Focusing on three diverse school districts (Arlington, Virginia; Denver, Colorado; Oakland, California), Hugging the Middle offers an incisive portrayal of how teachers teach now. It is a revealing look at a range of current, workable pedagogical options educators are using to engage students while satisfying parents and policymakers-options that succeed by creating hybrid practices that combine both teacher-centered approaches (e.g., mostly direct instruction, textbooks, lectures) with student-centered ones (e.g., team projects on real-world problems, independent learning, small-group work).

A state-of-the-profession assessment in this era of top-down educational policy, Hugging the Middle: Brings Larry Cuban's years of experience and keen historian's eye to an analysis of teaching today, Looks at teachers' continuing adaptations to standards-based education reform and the No Child Left Behind Act, Compares classroom practices in a cross section of U.S. urban schools, Gauges the impact of technology (or lack thereof) in the contemporary classroom.

Contents:

The Central Role of Teachers and Teaching in Schools 4

How Have Teachers Taught? 5

Historical Evidence 8

1 Standards-Based Reform and Test-Driven Accountability 13

A Follow-Up Study of How Teachers Taught 14

The Three Districts 16

Expectations from Increased Accountability 20

Evidence from Three Districts 22

Summary: Making Sense of Conflicting Evidence 27

2 Teaching in High-Minority, High-Poverty and Low-Minority, Low-Poverty Schools 33

The Ongoing Challenge of Student Achievement 33

What Researchers Say About the Achievement Gap 34

Instructional Practices in Arlington, Denver, and Oakland 35

3 Technology Access and Use in Three School Districts 42

Why Computers in Schools? 42

Patterns of Classroom Technology Use Since the 1990s 44

4 Can Teaching Traditions Be Linked to Student Learning? 49

Looking at the Evidence 51

5 Summing Up and Reflections 62

Teachers "Hug the Middle" 62

Lessons of the Eight Year Study 64

Hybrid Pedagogy Prevails 65

Technology Use and the Non-Link Between Pedagogy and Achievement Outcomes 66

Reflections on the Evidence 67

Appendix Research Design and Methodology: Rational and Limitations 71

Organization of Classroom Space 72

Grouping of Students 73

Classroom Activities 74

Caveats 76.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 87-97) and index.

ISBN:

0807749354

9780807749357

0807749362

9780807749364

OCLC:

259715965