In recent years, arts education has become a focus of some school improvement efforts, with consistent evidence emerging that vibrant arts programs can improve factors commonly listed as goals in school improvement plans, including engagement, attendance, and school climate. Such models mainly make use of arts integration, an approach that marries…

Others' success can be a powerful motivation to innovate, which sometimes means finding new ways to return to beneficial activities. Finland's academic success has prompted many to explore that country's policies and practices, particularly regarding providing opportunities for children to enjoy more unstructured play.

Repertoire: (1) a stock of plays, dances, or pieces that a company or a performer knows or is prepared to perform. (2) the whole body of items that are regularly performed. (3) a stock of skills or types of behavior that a person habitually uses. [https://www.google.com/#q=definition+of+repertoire.] Assessing the impact of teaching on student…

In January 2016, the International Association of Student Affairs and Services (IASAS) offered a global professional mentoring programme that would link student affairs leaders internationally with new graduates and early career professionals in student services. Protégé participants were primarily new graduates of preparatory programmes in…

The Common Core State Standards have been adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia. They enjoy a huge following of well-wishers and supporters who are optimistic that the standards will boost achievement in U.S. schools. Setting aside the cheerleading and fond hopes, what are the real chances of success? The most reasonable prediction is…

Laser-like attention has been focused on training principals since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, which emphasized student achievement. This dissertation examined the perceptions of principals on how their leadership preparation programs helped them develop the skills necessary to be competent and ultimately successful…

Induction support programs for beginning teachers is an education reform whose time has come. The national data indicate that over the past couple of decades the number of beginning teachers has ballooned in the U.S. Simultaneously, there has been a large increase in the number of states, districts, and schools offering induction programs.…

Through case-study reports, this paper examines the development of two induction-year teachers (years one to three) through their participation in a professional development community in the United States: the Invitational Summer Institute (ISI) of the National Writing Project. Typically, the ISI focuses its professional development efforts on…

Lesson Study can be viewed as a continuous development programme because it offers teachers support in an environment unlike other traditional continuous development programmes. In this study, 28 primary mathematics teachers were surveyed and 4 out of the 28 were interviewed to examine how they perceived Lesson Study as professional development.…

Since the first Circle of Trust retreat was offered in 2005, the Center for Courage & Renewal (CCR) and other individual facilitators across the United States, Canada, and Australia have continued to offer many cross-professional retreats, as they have proven extremely popular. They are designed for people from any profession who want to…

Creating a quality induction program can create positive changes in the school district. "Thoughtful preparation combined with dedicated and ongoing support can yield real improvements in the classroom" (K. Wiebke & J. Bardin, 2009, p. 37). Current research indicates that there is a need to support new teachers during the early…

The purpose of the multiple-site study was to explore educator's perceptions of the Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) that had been operating in three school districts using in-depth interviews. The goal of this research was to describe from the educator's perspective what they perceived, thought and observed about the PLCs functioning in…

The past few decades have seen middle school teachers in the United States hit especially hard by contradictory messages about the use and importance of technology in support of their standards-based mathematics teaching. This paper considers this dichotomy with respect to the California Mathematics Education Technology Site (CMETS), a…

This study examined how a professional development program which incorporates the use of electronic data-loggers could impact on science teachers' attitudes towards inquiry-based teaching. The participants were 28 science or technology teachers who attended workshops offered in the United States and Japan. The professional development program…

More high quality child care is needed in the United States. This article evaluates the Better Kid Care (BKC) program produced by Pennsylvania State University Extension. Child care staff in Wisconsin were interviewed about changes they had made in their early childhood programs following participation in the BKC program. Findings show that 2…