Creating a Culture of Reflective Practice: Building Capacity for Schoolwide Success

by Pete Hall

Then, in their scathing follow-up, The Mirage, they uncovered an even uglier reality: despite expenditures of nearly $18,000 per teacher per year on various forms of professional development, nearly 70 percent of teachers did not improve or declined in their performance over a period of two to three years, suggesting a "pervasive culture of low expectations for teacher development and performance" (2015, p. 2). As a result, and not surprisingly, teacher morale is in a steady decline, with large numbers of educators leaving the profession. A recent report for the Alliance for Excellent Education (2014), a policy and advocacy organization, found that "roughly half a million U.S. teachers either move or leave the profession each year" (para. 1).