In education systems around the world, planners and policymakers are calling for more attention to whole-system improvement. To best address teaching and learning outcomes, teachers and head teachers need whole-system support to build professionalism and improve their practice. The middle tier of education systems, composed of professionals…

"Taking the Lead" outlines 10 practical and powerful roles for school-based coaches responsible for helping teachers increase their capacity to serve all students. The second edition is a rich update to Killion and Harrison's essential resource and includes dozens of online tools that support deep exploration and implementation of the…

How can we approach professional development in a thoughtful way, keep teachers motivated, and make the process worthwhile? It's a truth that school leaders can't deny: teachers tend to think of PD as a distraction from the "real work" of the classroom--as something to get through instead of an opportunity to engage, learn, and grow as…

This brief provides guidance to policymakers and practitioners on the challenges and opportunities of the "dual language immersion" (DLI) model and presents research conducted with teachers and administrators both before and during their first years of implementing new DLI programs in several Indiana school districts. The brief also…

Language teacher education is widely identified as one of the most important areas that needs addressing in order to improve early language instruction, yet research into teacher education for early language teachers remains relatively sparse. This volume responds to this gap by compiling studies with diverse methodological tenets from a wide…

While literacy interventions can be implemented in any grade, focusing on interventions in grades 3-8 is critical because it is often the best chance for students identified with earlier reading deficiencies to become ready for the literacy demands of postsecondary education and careers. States in both the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)…

In "Online Professional Development for Teachers," the authors look closely at exemplary online professional development programs, compare them carefully with one another, and draw helpful conclusions about them--both for those who develop online programs and for teachers and administrators in search of professional development programs…

Four actions are necessary when contracting to do staff development: recognize that a presenter is a consultant first, arrange for a group contracting conversation in order to completely understand the school's needs, work from a standard set of design questions, and work from a standard set of logistics questions. (SM)

Penn State University (Altoona Campus) devised an innovative program to encourage faculty members to purchase computers by offering a $1,000 discount. The program resulted in 65 of the 76 full-time faculty members having their own microcomputers. (DB)

This paper offers a case history of one university academic department's experience with the pressure to create online scholarship opportunities for professional educators. As tertiary education transforms its course delivery to Web-based learning management platforms, instructors are challenged to transform career-long practice suddenly and…

This Guide is intended to share the insights of SEDL's National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning (the National Partnership) as well as information about both the academic and the organizational and management practices that successful afterschool programs use. The authors have organized these practices into the following four focus…

Discusses factors related to developing successful programs for training faculty in various aspects of college teaching, indicating that some tangible advantage for faculty participating in such programs is needed. Illustrates this by showing how a successful program was related to paying faculty one week's salary for attending the program. (JN)

This book describes how to use adult learning strategies in planning faculty development. Chapter 1 addresses concerns about success, demonstrating how to use an adult learning model to help faculty developers succeed. Chapter 2 presents the Adult Learning Model for Faculty Development, which has four stages grounded in adult learning and program…

Materials developed by the Alabama community, junior, and technical colleges as part of a state-funded professional development effort are presented. The first sections provide information on Alabama's systemwide professional development activities; the organization and characteristics of the community, junior, and technical college system;…

This booklet provides an introduction to project-based instruction, explaining the research-based rationale for using the approach and outlining how the approach can increase students' engagement and knowledge retention. It offers guidelines for planning and implementing projects and includes a checklist of important things to keep in mind when…