Teacher Research for Better Schools

This book is about a group of experienced K–12 teachers who took teacher research to another level. Their story is not only about teachers working together to improve their own teaching, but also about how their research reverberated throughout their school system and influenced how their schools were run. Grounded in the day-to-day life of classrooms and featuring dialogue from the participants, this unique volume:

• Shows how to use teacher research to promote student learning, teacher professionalism, and a school culture centered on student and teacher learning.
• Reports on teacher research projects in an elementary, a middle, and a high school where teachers studied their own classrooms, schools, and school system—to transform schools from the inside-out.
• Ties research findings to implications and practical recommendations for teacher colleagues, school-level administrators, central office administrators, teacher educators, professional developers, parents, and school communities.
• Offers examples of different types of research teachers conduct, and explains what it takes to build and sustain a teacher research community.

Marian M. Mohr and Mary Ann Nocerino are former teachers who work with schools and school systems on teacher research, school planning, and program evaluation. Sheila Clawson, Marion S. MacLean, Courtney Rogers, and Betsy Sanford are teachers in the public schools of Fairfax County, Virginia.

“In these authors’ hands we have, at last, a book that goes beyond teacher research as a professional development tool and shows us how teachers can both produce knowledge as well as consume it. It is this kind of professional knowledge that will improve the quality of teaching and transform schools. And it is this kind of book that can be used as a primer to help make it happen.”
—From the Foreword by Ann Lieberman, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

“This is a great book for teachers and administrators who are beginning to think about the role teacher networks can play in getting school staff to make shifts in their practice. The authors provide practical strategies for establishing school-based and district-wide support systems that help educators keep the focus on the continued improvement of teaching and learning.”
—Diane Waff, Vice Principal, Trenton Central High School, Trenton, NJ