8/9/2019 Kathleen Cushman - Innovative Way to Educate Teachers Listen to Students

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3. Kathleen Cushmans innovative way to educate teachers: Listen to students

The spotlight in school reform has turned to teacher education. Some reformers believethat tightly scripted curriculum is the best defense against inadequately prepared teachers.

Some, like Doug Lemov ofUncommon Schools, prescribe specific behaviors without

which even well-educated teachers cannot be effective in classrooms. Some focus oncombating underlying societal problems like poverty and discrimination.

Into that mix, the national nonprofit organizationWhat Kids Can Do, Inc.(WKCD) haslaunched a fresh approach: listening to the voices of students themselves.

In nine books published between 2001 and 2010, WKCD writerKathleen Cushmanhas

interviewed adolescents around the country about some of the most persistent challengesthat educators face in schools.Stanford University,Harvard University, and the

University of Michiganare among the teacher education programs that use these books to

help new teachers understand the psychology and circumstances of their adolescentstudents.

Cushman asked New York City students about the breakup of traditional large publichigh schools into educational complexes of small schools forWKCDs 2001 bookThe

Schools We Need: Creating Small High Schools that Work for Us. The slim paperback is

still in demand nine years later, as the practice of large school breakups spreads

nationwide.

Fires in the Bathroom(The New Press, 2003, 2005) andFires in the Middle School

Bathroom(The New Press, 2008) both offer students advice for teachers aboutclassroom culture. Before she began that research for What Kids Can Do, Cushman asked

new teachers what they wished they could ask the students they faced in urban

classrooms. High school students gave their answers in chapters like Knowing Students

Well and Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness. Cushman and co-author Laura Rogersorganized the responses of middle school students into chapters like Everything Is Off

Balance and A Teacher on Our Side.

Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery(Jossey-Bass,

2010) goes deeper into student motivation, effort, and mastery of difficult material.

WKCDs student contributors focused on deliberate practice, analyzing how theylearned in areas like sports and the arts, then making connections to academic learning.

In Sent to the Principal(Next Generation Press, 2005), students turned to matters thatschool principals usually control, such as dress codes, discipline, and school climate.

Two more books resulting from Cushmans interviews forWhat Kids Can Doofferadvice from first-generation college students for others like themselves.First in the

Family: Your High School Yearsdeals with getting into college andFirst in the Family:Your College Yearsaddresses making it through to graduation (Next Generation Press,

2005, 2006).

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