alancing directive coaching with collaborative and non-directive coaching can be difficult, especially when nov- ice teachers seek specific direction from their mentors. Using a gradual release model with new teachers is essential to supporting novice teachers. By helping novice teachers move along a continuum of development, coaches encourage them to become expert profes- sionals who make instructional decisions that make a positive impact on student learning

Mentors ensure that new teachers and those new to the school or district are acclimated and acculturated into their new workplace.

professionals

ImplicitinFigure1.4isthenotionthattheschool (as opposedto thedistrict)istheproperfocus for reform.Indeed,thisisacon-sistentconclusionintheresearchliterature(Scheerens&Bosker, 1997;Reynolds&Teddlie,2000;Wang,Haertel&Walberg,1993).WhileIshareChubbandMoe’scon-cern that district-level centraladministrationcansometimes impedeschool reform,Ibelievethat thecurrent structureofpubl

teachers

ofthestudentswhoattendtheschool.Specifically,theseschoolsprovide interventionsthataredesignedtoovercomestudentbackgroundcharacteristicsthatmightimpedelearning.Theseinterven-tionsaredetailedinSectionIIIof thisbook.Fornow,itis-sufficienttosaythatthisisaremarkable possibility—onethatprovidesgreathopeforpublic education.

ssertion 4: The schools that are highlyeffective produce results that almostentirely overcome the effects of studentbackground.

tletobearonachild'sachievementthatisindependentofhisbackgroundandgeneralsocialcontext; andthatthisverylack of anindependenteffectmeansthatthe inequali-tiesimposedonchildrenbytheirhome,neighborhood,andpeerenvironmentarecarriedalongtobecometheinequalitieswithwhichtheyconfrontlifeattheendofschool.(p.325)

(1959)forwardedthepositionthatpubliceducationwas weakening the intellectualcapacity of our students. Rickover’s book,Education and Freedom, made direct linksbetween the securi