According to the 23rd Annual Report to Congress, U.S. Department of Education, one out of every five people in the United States has a learning disability (LD). The dropout rate among these students is high, and students with learning disabilities are also less likely to attend 4-year colleges and universities. Although a majority of students with…

This study examined how science teachers' knowledge of research methods, neuroscience and drug addiction changed through their participation in a 5-day summer science institute. The data for this study evolved from a four-year NIH funded science education project called Addiction Research and Investigation for Science Educators (ARISE). Findings…

The Association Supporting Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) initiated a refereed track for paper submissions to the conference in 2008. In fact, at the 2008 business meeting, the membership approved three different presentation tracks: refereed with 3 blind reviews for each paper, session with paper where the author submits a paper but it is…

Grantmakers for Education's Principles for Effective Education Grantmaking identify "innovation" and "constant learning" as a core proposition for achieving results in education philanthropy. To illustrate this principle, "Learning by Doing" examines the Noyce Foundation's efforts to apply new information to its…

This article examines the sustained impact of a workshop series held to support faculty engagement in program assessment in the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach. The four-part series, held monthly during spring 2008, was intended to enhance faculty understanding of their role in assessment of student learning at the…

Teachers who have participated in Summer Institutes of the National Writing Project (NWP) have often claimed "it changed my life." What do teachers mean when they say this? What does it mean to "transform" in a professional development setting, and what might researchers and professional development providers gain from an…

This issue of the SubJournal highlights three different substitute teacher programs and how they succeeded in enhancing their programs. These articles provide guidelines to how two school districts and one regional education service center met these challenges. A list of references follows each article. Articles in this issue include: (1) St.…

The Association of California Community College Administrators' Management Development Institute was established in 1977 to provide workshop consultants and services for professional development activities. In 1979, a survey was conducted to determine whether the needs of the colleges were being met. Of the 105 California community college…

As the fifth largest school district in California, Santa Ana Unified School District faces the challenge of providing technology access to its more than 63,000 students and over 6,000 certificated and classified staff members. This article describes how the district found the solution in wireless computing, which is now being used as a highly…

Over the course of their kindergarten through twelfth grade education, children in American public schools will spend the equivalent of one school year under the guidance of a substitute teacher. Yet in most districts, substitutes are given the keys to the classroom without a day's training. While requirements vary by state, some may hold advanced…

The reauthorization of Title I (Improving America's Schools Act--IASA) made the Schoolwide Program (Schoolwide) a major strategy for schools with high poverty rates and stressed the importance of parent involvement. This guide was developed to provide professional development and parent education on Schoolwide implementation in California. The…

Workshops and related staff development activities designed for vocational education instructors, administrators, career counselors, and support services staff are described in this two-part report. Part I focuses on the Vocational Staff Workshops (VSW) project, indicating that its key objectives were to identify regional in-service training…

In August 1990, a statewide inservice training project for two-year college home economics instructors was initiated by the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges. The project's three main objectives were to: (1) identify inservice priority needs through a review of existing data from previous home economics projects; (2) plan,…

This study investigates the nature and scope of current staff development activities and their relation to better teaching or school improvement in a representative sample of school districts and private schools in Arizona and southern parts of California and Nevada. Findings are based on telephone discussions with 72 administrators in the region.…

The documents enclosed in this report provide a comprehensive and systematic review of the progress made in developing a network organization capable of supporting nanoscience education for the public on a national scale. There is a logic to the studies that were done and to the reports that are included in this notebook. The following are the…