Teacher professionalism from the superintendent's perspective

In the conclusion to her 2014 book The Teacher Wars, the journalist Dana Goldstein offers 11 recommendations for increasing the professional status of teachers in the U.S. Her suggestions such as increasing teacher pay, supporting professional learning communities, and encouraging teachers to observe each other in the classroom offer excellent starting points for high-level policy debates, says Joshua P. Starr. From the perspective of a local school superintendent, however, each of these ideas needs some refinement.