The Emeritus Teacher

Mary, Clara, and Harry are part of what they call the gray brigade. They met 6 years ago at a Retired Teachers Association meeting, warmed up to one another immediately, and began a lasting friendship. The trio has reached the emeritus phase of the Life Cycle of the Career Teacher model. They cared passionately about their profession when they were teachers, and that passion continues today. All are actively involved in helping schools improve and children succeed. Each of them goes about this quest in a very different way. Mary is a political activist well known in the halls of the state legislature. Clara, who volunteers in a fourth-grade classroom at a neighborhood school, knows how to provide underachieving students with the gift of resilience. Harry is known for achieving a 100 % success rate in mentoring teachers through the apprentice phase. All of these emeritus teachers continue to make significant contributions to the field of teaching, yet on their own terms and in their own ways

Steffy, Betty E., Curriculum Decision Making: Parental Involvement, pp. 1115-1157 in T. Husen and T. N. Postlethwaite, eds., International Encyclopedia of Education. New York: Pergamon, 1984.

Discusses several facets of parent participation in curriculum decision-making

English, Fenwick W., and Betty E. Steffy, Promise and Problems of the Curriculum Audit, Education, 113(Winter, 1992), 168-171.

Describes the methods and value of conducting a curriculum audit of standards and the reality; also discusses issues and arguments pro and con