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To Build a Better Teacher The Emergence of a Competitive Education Industry
Robert Gray Holland
Foreword by Michael Poliakoff
Book Code: H885
ISBN: 0-89789-885-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-89789-885-0
168 pages, figure, tables
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 9/30/2003
List Price: $86.95 (UK Sterling Price: £49.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Paperback
Trim Size: 6 1/8 X 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • This well-written volume is highly recommended for all persons interested in improving US schools. Highly recommended. General readers, graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals. _
    —Choice     June 2004
  • To Build a Better Teacher is a gem, suggesting how citizens can really begin to improve our schools of education and generate improved public schools across the nation....[t]his important text could be a huge aid to Henrico County School Board members iin their frantic search for a new and wise superintendent. Holland's book is that important for the education industry.
    —Richmond Times-Dispatch     May 2004
  • [T]his book gets to the heart of why teacher training isn't helping teachers and what policymakers can do about the problem....There is no better overview of the issue avaiable today.
    —J.E Stone, Education Consumers ClearingHouse     2003
  • Endorsement From The Honorable L. Douglas Wilder
    Distinguished Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University
    Former Governor of Virginia:     In any survey conducted by policy analysts of those interested in the issues that are on the minds of the public, education is at the top of the list. . . . Bob Holland's approach to solving some of the problems addresses the issues associated with those who teach our teachers what and how to teach. He makes the case, that in the absence of proof to the contrary, change has to occur if we want improvement in the product, the product being those children who have been entrusted to our care, instruction, and nurturing.
  • Endorsement From E. D. Hirsch Jr.
    Professor Emeritus of Education and Humanities, University of Virginia:     This superbly written book exhibits a humane tone that is very welcome amid the uncharitable shrillness of education debates. . . . This book is concrete, readable, accurate, up-to-date, and authoritative. If you want to know what is going on in the all-important teacher-education debates, what is being proposed, and what needs to be done, this is the book to turn to.
Description: Throughout the 20th century, grade-school teachers were trained in schools of education where progressive theories largely held sway and were licensed by state bureaucracies philosophically compatible with the education schools. Vested education interests now seek to make the monopoly even more controlling by requiring that all teachers be products of education schools accredited by a single national agency dedicated to progressive ideals. Holland proposes an alternative vision compatible with the emerging 21st-century paradigm of a competitive education industry: Lower unnecessary barriers to teaching so that bright persons of diverse background and disposition can become teachers. Set up an alternative track--as in New Jersey--so that bright liberal arts graduates or persons with valuable real-world experience can be hired as teachers and put under the supervision of experienced mentors. Apply value-added assessment--as in Tennessee--to these new teachers, and to veteran teachers as well, so that principals can see how much each teacher has helped each child progress academically--or not--from school year to school year. Holland's plan to break up the teacher-prep monopoly is bound to be controversial, and, as such, should be of great interest to all--from parents and administrators to teachers and policy makers--concerned with improving the state of American education.
Table of Contents:
  • Facilitators at the Gates
  • Teachers on Teaching
  • Data Define the Problem
  • The Certification Mill
  • The Players
  • The Roads Less Traveled
  • Mentors, Mentors, Who's Got the Mentors?
  • Value-Added Teaching
  • Free-Agent Teachers
  • Putting It All Together
LC Card Number: 2003045969
LCC Class: LB1715
Dewey Class: 370
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