ABSTRACT
Teachers operating within the scope of John Dewey's law may rely on more than political machinations, however heavy-handed or subtle, to establish their status as members of a profession. The challenge for Deweyan theory is to establish canons of measurability for teacher professionalism. Concerns about measuring teacher accountability in terms of adherence to curriculum standards and student scores on standardized tests have been countered by recommendation that teacher responsibility be measured in terms of instructional effectiveness and educational responsiveness to student need. Deweyan solution to the problem of teacher accountability via the universal law of educational energy seems susceptible to the philosophical objection that Dewey's scientific theory of teaching necessarily separates talk of teacher accountability from talk of teacher responsibility. Including Dewey's law among the options for understanding teacher professionalism not only breaks Wise's dilemma but also passes Nicholas Burbules and Kathleen Densmore's acid test for professionalization of teaching.
