Teacher Empowerment: a Step Toward Professionalization

GENE I. MAEROFF is senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Princeton, N.J. He is a former education writer for the New York Times. His new book, The Empowerment of Teachers: Overcoming the Crisis of Confidence, has been published by Teachers College Press, Columbia University. The principal of a junior high school in suburban Chicago was in a despondent mood. He was besieged on the one side by an administration increasingly burdening him with forms to fill out in the name of &dquo;accountability&dquo; and squeezed on the other side by vociferous teachers who charged that he did not consult with them about grading and promotion policies. He shook his head during an interview and lamented not having become an accountant, as his father had urged him to do.