School-based professional community is a concept that portrays teachers as working together towards a set of shared goals of improved professionalism for themselves and increased learning opportunities for students. Attempts to put this into practice in urban schools in the United States have met with varying degrees of success. Using case studies, the contributors to this book examine the reasons for this inconsistency, focusing on the structural, social and human relations conditions of schooling.
Karen Seashore Louis is the Rodney Wallace Professor of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her area of expertise includes improvement in K-12 leadership and policy over the last 30 years, particularly in urban secondary schools. Louis also conducts research on organizational changes within higher education, with particular attention to faculty roles, and on international comparative policy in educational reform. A past president of Division A of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), she is a widely published author in the field. Recent books include Organizing for School Change, Leadership for Change and School Improvement: International Perspectives, Handbook of Educational Administration, Second Edition, and Organizational Learning in Schools. Louis earned a bachelor's degree in History from Swarthmore College and a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University. Sharon D. Kruse is a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Leadership at the University of Akron. Over the past decade, she has studied school leadership and successful school improvement practices. She previously worked with Karen Seashore Louis coauthoring Professionalism and Community: Perspective on Reforming Urban Schools (Corwin Press 1995) and with Bob Johnson Jr. coauthoring Decision Making for Educational Leaders: Under-Examined Dimensions and Issues.
PART ONE: PROBLEMS AND CONCEPTS Professionalism and Community - Karen Seashore Louis, Sharon D Kruse and Anthony S Bryk What Is It and Why Is It Important in Urban Schools? An Emerging Framework for Analyzing School-Based Professional Community - Sharon D Kruse, Karen Seashore Louis and Anthony S Bryk PART TWO: CASES FROM URBAN SCHOOLS Professional Community and Its Yield at Metro Academy - Mary Anne Raywid Thomas Paine High School - Jean A King and Daniel A Weiss Professional Community in an Unlikely Setting Catalyzing Professional Community in a School Reform Left Behind - Sharon Rollow and Anthony S Bryk Changing the Tire on a Moving Bus - M Peg Lonnquist and Jean A King Barriers to Professional Community at Whitehead School Dewey Middle School - Daniel A Weiss, Karen Seashore Louis and Jeremy Hopkins Getting Past the First Stages of Restructuring PART THREE: REFLECTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY IN URBAN SCHOOLS Developing Professional Community in New and Restructuring Urban Schools - Sharon D Kruse and Karen Seashore Louis Getting There - Karen Seashore Louis and Sharon D Kruse Promoting Professional Community in Urban Schools
