Despite attention to a more "personalized" learning experience for
students, the small high school reform movement is curiously silent
about the possibilities and challenges of instructional improvement.
This book, however, provides data on a different approach to high school
teachers' professional learning that centers on content- and
context-specific instructional expertise, and does so in settings that
are simultaneously concerned with structural reforms. Readers will
obtain a deeper understanding of how an external coaching organization
constructs what they believe to be high quality professional learning
opportunities for high school teachers, specifically in service of
deepening content knowledge, increasing standards for student
performance, and enhancing the belief that all students have the
intellectual capacity for challenging academic work. Of particular
interest to scholars and school/district leaders, this book offers a new
paradigm for high school teachers' professional development and draws
conclusions on how such opportunities can influence classroom practices.