Over the past 6 years, the Oral History Project Team has conducted interviews with individuals who have influenced the theory and practice of evaluation. In 2006, Robin Miller, with the help of Christian Coryn of The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University (WMU), and Daniela Schroeter, also at the Center, sat down with widely regarded…

Many school districts are acknowledging staff development's dismal record. Inservice programs traditionally operate on a deficit training model, promote awareness without classroom strategies, and are offered by traveling "experts." Teachers need time and opportunity to direct their own professional development program and "mess…

A longitudinal investigation of the ways policymakers and practitioners in California, Michigan, and South Carolina view curricular reform in elementary mathematics and literacy instruction shows the complexities involved in "updating" teachers' professional development. Curriculum standards and frameworks are no substitute for the…

There is a rich history of researchers developing curricular materials aimed at enhancing student learning in American classrooms. Though many of these innovations have been successful on a small scale, institutionalizing them so they become part of a district's instructional culture has been a challenge. As large districts try to scale up and…