The purpose of this book is to help practitioners and policy makers understand how important it is to assist beginning teachers, and what it involves in terms of policy, procedures, pitfalls, personnel, price in time and money, and prospects. The book is divided into the following chapters: (1) "Beginning Teacher Assistance Programs: An…

Nine teachers in programs serving school-aged children or adults with severe disabilities received training on applying rules in data-based instructional decisions. After one-two years of implementation, the teachers' decision making and the effect of these decisions on student progress were evaluated. Some support was found for the benefit of…

The Classroom Management Improvement Study (CMIS) was designed to investigate a complex staff development effort in order to provide a clear explication of the treatment in the event that either researchers or practitioners desired to replicate the intervention. The treatment was directed toward introducing effective classroom management…

Reviews and interprets evidence that demonstrates underachievement in working class children. Argues that any success with improving effectiveness of these students is determined by classroom teachers. Concludes that continuous efforts must be made to reduce the gap between everyday experience and classroom experience. (CFR)

A district-based leadership program has been designed to train teachers in self-assessment so they may independently improve their instructional skills. Teachers are trained to analyze their behaviors objectively through the use of audio and videotape. Instruction is also provided in creating and using checklists to assess classroom instruction…

Competency Based Teacher Education (CBTE) is examined as a means of providing a systematic approach to handling educational complexity which will lead to modernizing teacher education. Analysis and discussion are offered on: (1) what CBTE consists of and how it functions; (2) CBTE as an educational reform movement in the United States; (3)…

An accountability model has been derived from a research based staff development model used in secondary school classrooms. This accountability model contains four components: (1) baseline/pretest; (2) inform; (3) guided practice; and (4) post-test observations. In the first component, teachers are observed; individual profiles of behavior are…

Intended to help teachers assess the effectiveness of their reading program, this paper suggests how teachers can emphasize comprehension in reading, what behaviors students demonstrate related to getting and creating meaning when reading, and how the classroom environment can promote reading for meaning. After describing effective teacher and…

This review of the literature highlights research-based ways to improve schools and classrooms. Emphasis is on student time-on-task, effective teacher behaviors, and positive teacher supervision. (JM)

Outlines principles and guidelines for creating productive choral rehearsals and provides examples of each. These include pre-planning and organizing the rehearsal, following a synthesis-analysis-synthesis model, stressing "doing," keeping the rehearsal challenging and unpredictable, and focusing on positive improvement. (MJP)

Part I of this two-part document consists of a report on a study designed to measure the effects of a nonsexist classroom on the sex role attitudes of first graders. Part II is a teacher's guide to the nonsexist classroom program itself. The sex role attitudes of three groups of children--an experimental group from an open classroom, and two…