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This absence prevents standard-based inspections and complicates testing, teacher education, and assessment tied to specific learning goals, resulting in anomalous practices.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/","Healthcare",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/learning-to-teach-a-uniquely-american-educational-dilemma/592362/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/learning-to-teach-a-uniquely-american-educational-dilemma/592362.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"McGucket","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-10","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":33},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"Why is teacher quality assessment different in U.S. K–12 schools?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"U.S. schools lack common standards and inspections referenced to occupational benchmarks, so teachers’ performance cannot be judged against shared curriculum-linked criteria.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"What role does educational infrastructure play in teaching quality?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"When systems share curriculum and curriculum-grounded teacher education, they can create standards describing what to teach, when to teach it, and how well it is taught.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"What are two major anomalies caused by the lack of a common infrastructure?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"The text highlights assessment-related testing limitations and teacher education that trains teachers to instruct “no particular curriculum,” even though teaching always targets something.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},592362,1792859846,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,109,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},7,40,"healthcare",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":106,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":33,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":33,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":123,"preview_page_count":4},1236954412713,"https://us-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","Learning toTeach Nothing in Particular  \nA Uniquely American Educational Dilemma  \nILLUSTRATIONS BY SCOTT MCKOWEN  \nBy David K. Cohen  \nW  \nhen inspectors visit construction sites to assess the quality of work, they do so against the building code, which typically is written out in detail and used to guide work and teach apprentices. When  \nattending physicians supervise interns as they take patients’ histories or check their blood pressure, they compare the interns’work with established procedures, many of which are written  \nDavid K. Cohen is the John Dewey Collegiate Professor of Education and professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. He is the author of numerous articles and books on topics including education policy, the evaluation of educational experiments and large-scale interventions, and how to improve teaching. This article is adapted with permission from “Teacher Quality: An American Educational Dilemma,” a chapter in Teacher Assessment and the Quest for Teacher Quality: A Handbook, edited by Mary M. Kennedy, copyright © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  \ndown and used to guide work and teach novices. In these cases and many others, the assessment of quality in workers’ performance is framed by and conducted in light of occupational standards.  \nThat isnot the case for teaching inU.S. K–12 schools. There are no common standards against which teachers’ performance could be judged and no inspections oftheir performance in light of such standards. There have been standardsofa sort (i.e., checklists of questionable quality), but they have not focused on performance in sufficient detail to discriminate acceptable from unacceptable work. If we want to understand teacher preparation, development, and assessment in the United States, we must explain this unusual situation.  \nBecause local control and weak government were the foundations ofU.S. public education, most of our school systems never developed the common instruments that are found in many national school systems (and, to be fair, in a few U.S. subsystems) .  \n44 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | WINTER 2010–2011  \nThese include a common curriculum or curriculum frameworks, common examinations tied to the curriculum, teacher education grounded in learning to teach the curriculum that students are to learn, and a teaching force whose members succeeded in those curriculum-based exams as students, among other things. Teachers who work with such infrastructure have instruments that they can use to set academic tasks tied to curriculum and assessment. They have a common vocabulary with which they can work together to identify, investigate, discuss, and solve problems of teaching and learning. Hence, they can have professional knowledge and skill, held in common.  \nThe existence of such infrastructure does not ensure excellent or effective education; that depends on how well it is designed and how educators use it. Use can be influenced by agencies that oversee practice and shape quality; the chief example is inspector  \nTo teach is always to teach something, but the governance [structure of U.S. education](structure of U.S. education) has long forbidden the specification of what that something would be.  \nates, whose staff visit schools and classrooms, assess quality, offer advice, and help to improve practice. Use also can be influenced by standards for entry to the occupation, requirements for education and training, and criteria for promotion. In some national systems, promotion and tenure depend on the demonstration of competent practice in the classroom.  \nOne other salient feature of such infrastructure is that it can inform assessment of teaching. Given a common curriculum and teacher education grounded in the curriculum, it is possible to devise standards of teaching quality that are referenced to teaching that curriculum. It is possible to devise standards that specify which elements of the subject should be taught, when or in what order they might most fruit","cbCailtSiFR4Gxuq","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailtSiFR4Gxuq","pdf",228322,"English","# Learning to Teach: Nothing in Particular\n## Infrastructure and standards for teaching quality\n## Anomalous features in U.S. teacher assessment\n## Testing and teacher education without common curricula","[{\"question\":\"Why is teacher quality assessment different in U.S. K–12 schools?\",\"answer\":\"U.S. schools lack common standards and inspections referenced to occupational benchmarks, so teachers’ performance cannot be judged against shared curriculum-linked criteria.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does educational infrastructure play in teaching quality?\",\"answer\":\"When systems share curriculum and curriculum-grounded teacher education, they can create standards describing what to teach, when to teach it, and how well it is taught.\"},{\"question\":\"What are two major anomalies caused by the lack of a common infrastructure?\",\"answer\":\"The text highlights assessment-related testing limitations and teacher education that trains teachers to instruct “no particular curriculum,” even though teaching always targets something.\"}]","Learning to Teach - A Uniquely American Educational Dilemma | PDF",1792074409]