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Elizabeth J. Meyer

University of Colorado Boulder

Elizabeth J. Meyer is an Associate Professor in Educational Foundations, Policy and Practice in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of two books: Gender, Bullying, and Harassment: Strategies to End Sexism and Homophobia in Schools (Teachers College Press) and Gender and Sexual Diversity in Schools (Springer). Dr. Meyer completed her M.A. at CU Boulder, and Ph.D. at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her research has been published in academic journals such as: Gender and Education, Teachers College Record, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Policy Analysis Archives, and The Journal of LGBT Youth. She has discussed her research on FOXNews, National Public Radio, CTV National News (Canada), and other regional media outlets. Current research projects address Title IX and transgender affirming policies and practices in K-12 schools. Professor Meyer received the American Educational Research Association's 2021 award for Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity in Education Research. She maintains the Gender and Education blog for Psychology Today and is also on Twitter: @lizjmeyer.

Email Elizabeth Meyer at: Elizabeth.J.Meyer@colorado.edu

NEPC Publications

NEPC Review: Smart, Skilled, and Striving: Transforming and Elevating the Teaching Profession (Center for American Progress, November 2015)

Carmel Martin, Lisette Partelow, & Catherine Brown
Smart, Skilled, and Striving: Transforming and Elevating the Teaching Profession

This report from the Center for American Progress offers 10 recommendations for improving the public perceptions of and experiences of classroom teachers. While elements of these recommendations would likely be beneficial, they also include policy changes that would increase surveillance of teachers, reduce teachers’ job security, evaluate teachers by students’ test scores, and create merit pay systems that would likely have the opposite effect. For evidence, the report relies too heavily on popular rhetoric, sound bites, opinion articles, and advocacy publications to advance a policy agenda that in many ways could do further harm to the teaching profession. However, many of the report’s recommendations do align with policy reforms currently being proposed for the Higher Education Act and included in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorizations and are therefore important to read critically and consider carefully. In advancing evaluation of teachers by test scores, the report goes against the cautions and guidelines recently released by the American Statistical Association and the American Educational Research Association. Other than a review of contemporary issues, the report offers little of substance to advance the teaching profession.