High-quality assessments are crucial to many aspects of the educational process. They can help policymakers monitor long-term educational trends, assist state educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) in allocating resources and professional development opportunities, provide insights to teachers about how well students…

The core practice of professional scientists is inquiry, often referred to as research. If educators are to prepare students for a role in the professional scientific and technological community, exposing them to inquiry-based learning is essential. Despite this, inquiry-based teaching and learning (IBTL) remains relatively rare, possibly due to…

Clinical Teacher Education focuses on how to build a school-university partnership network for clinical teacher education in urban school systems serving culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The labor intensive nature of professional development school work has resulted in research institutions being slow to fully adopt a clinical…

This compilation of articles from NSDC's newsletters and JSD is a comprehensive resource on creating a positive school culture. The collection includes descriptions of healthy cultures and specific information about how district and school leaders can take actions to create more positive environments, beginning with the audits provided and…

This book offers an ambitious new system for evaluating, compensating, and providing professional development for school teachers and administrators. In this realigned system, new forms of accountability are introduced, but they go hand in hand with new rewards and access to enhanced forms of professional development to help educators succeed in…

The importance of student assessment, particularly for summative purposes, has increased greatly over the past thirty years. At the same time, emphasis on including all students in assessment programs has also increased. Assessment programs, whether they are large-scale, district-based, or teacher developed, have traditionally attempted to assess…

Responding to disruptive or troubled pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) remains a highly topical issue. The challenges these children present relate to wider issues of continuing political concern: the perceived declining discipline in schools; school and social exclusion; the limits to inclusion for children with special…

This practice-oriented book brings together research and evaluation approaches and supporting case studies from educational researchers and teachers. The emphasis is on changing practice in higher education and the research that underpins desirable development. Following an introduction, chapter 1 presents Educational Development Changing Practice…

This collection draws on material from IRA journals and other publications to complement Standards for Reading Professionals. It will enable the reader to visualize how a particular element of the standards might look in their own program. The collection is organized into sections corresponding to the five standards: Foundational knowledge;…

Although there are about 15,000 school districts in the United States, each headed by a superintendent, research on the superintendency has not been systematic and dynamic. This book presents a synthesis of research on the superintendency. Chapters include the following: (1) "Smoke, Mirrors, or Reality: Another Instructional Leader" (Shirley M.…

This kit and flyer produced by the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center of the Association of Research Libraries provides documents submitted by 14 universities that are used in the performance evaluation of professional library staff. Commentary based on a thorough review of documents submitted by 60 libraries includes an overview of the…

The 25 chapters in this handbook examine evaluation purposes, processes, and methods, and discuss how they shape the implementation and outcomes of evaluation. Following an introduction in chapter 1, the nine chapters in Part I consider the purposes of evaluation. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are concerned with the evaluation processes that determine…

This is the first in a series of four books presenting a variety of field experience program models and philosophies that drive the programs provided to preservice teachers during their undergraduate teacher preparation. This publications focuses on developing and evaluating an effective field experience program. Several common themes emerge from…

This collection of 22 essays examines the use of records of achievement (student profiles or portfolios) in higher and vocational education in the United Kingdom. They include: (1) "Records of Achievement: Background, Definitions, and Uses" (Alison Assiter and Eileen Shaw); (2) "Profiling in Higher Education" (Alison Assiter…

This best-selling textbook offers a sound and practical introduction to the skills needed to gain Qualified Teacher Status, will help to develop the qualities that lead to good practice and a successful future in education, and covers the range of situations and potential problems faced by student and newly qualified teachers. Updates to this…