Vital yet elusive

Accountability mandates have changed the field of teaching dramatically in the last ten years. Teachers, particularly those in urban schools, are under greater pressure to increase the achievement of all of their students. Schools in urban areas face additional challenges, such as chronic low achievement (Cochran-Smith, 2003) and increased pressures to improve outcomes for more student subgroups than are typically found in suburban schools (Kantor & Lowe, 2006). Additionally, urban schools experience higher levels of teacher attrition (Ingersoll, 2001), with teachers often leaving for less urban settings (Hanushek, Kain, & Rivkin, 2004). Although schools in urban areas have used a variety of approaches to meet accountability demands, teacher learning lies at the heart of most improvement strategies (Desimone, 2001; Fullan, 2000; Valli & Buese, 2007). This study provides insight into the professional learning experiences of urban, second-stage teachers, all of whom worked in schools and districts under intense accountability pressure. Overall, these teachers described a variety of learning experiences. Yet many of these experiences were of little value to their daily practice. Becau