By Anthony Alvarado

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what it takes to educate a kid and why we do things the way we do. When the
theory is that the teacher and the child - that dyad - is where the rubber
meets the road, all roads lead to professional development. But in the new
world of standards-based education and helping our students meet them, it is
professional development of a kind that we have not previously experienced.
In the past, it has been a fairly mundane and superficial matter of speakers
and workshops, with here a new technique or procedure for classroom
management and there an inspirational talk about diversity. The new
professional development must be different and much more powerful, and it
will involve solving problems and collaborating at levels that we have never
even contemplated.

Anthony Alvarado is chancellor for instruction in the San Diego (California)
City Schools. This article is adapted from a speech he gave at the AFT/NEA
Teacher Quality Conference in September 1998.