For more than a decade education practitioners have promoted the professional learning community (PLC) as an effective way to provide professional development to teachers. As more PLCs are established in schools and districts nationwide, education stakeholders--researchers, practitioners, administrators, and policymakers--are interested in…

As your school district undertakes the process of evaluating its K-12 reading program, literacy curriculum, or literacy instructional practices, this book will be your go-to resource. Pennell offers a step-by-step guide for educators, school leaders, or professional learning communities to evaluate high-quality instructional materials and…

Educational and vocational rehabilitation programs both have key roles and responsibilities in improving post-school outcomes for students with disabilities. Both entities must be involved in creating opportunities for students to develop skills and knowledge to prepare for careers in the 21st Century. To help facilitate understanding and promote…

New Teacher Evaluation and Support Systems were fully implemented in every public school during the 2012-13 school year. Rhode Island educators have had a significant voice in revising the Student Learning Objective (SLO) process for the 2013-14 school year. Through surveys, focus groups, working groups, principal shadows, regional meetings, and…

This book describes nearly 30 protocols or "scripts" for conducting meetings, conversations, and other learning experiences among educators. Chapter 1, "The Basic Ideas," explains the basic ideas underlying the rest of the book, discussing why educators should educate themselves and making the case for exploring student work as…

This book discusses the most current knowledge on whole- faculty study groups (WFSGs). Nine chapters examine: (1) "Introduction" (how WFSGs began and spread); (2) "Enabling Professional Development and Schoolwide Change" (guiding principles and questions); (3) "Key Components: Context, Process, and Content"; (4)…

Highlighting the issues involved in starting and maintaining a teacher study group, this book provides practical suggestions for organizing, facilitating, and dealing with group dynamics within a study group. It addresses the details that go into making decisions about the time, place, group size, resources, and structure of the meetings, as well…

Professional development research suggests that teachers learn best from and with each other in ongoing, job-embedded activities. "A Facilitator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams" provides a way of engaging school faculties in sustained, onsite professional development that builds capacity and collegiality, improves teaching quality, and…

This booklet discusses how to develop successful substitute teachers, explaining that most substitutes do not receive the respect necessary to be effective. School districts must take such steps as adopting fair substitute hiring practices, allowing for the regular placement of substitutes in the same school over the year, and including…

This book contains activities and discussions regarding the essential skills, understandings, and behaviors needed to profit from being mentored. Each chapter provides principles for success and offers suggestions for action. An annotated compendium of publications and Internet sites of interest to new teachers is included. Chapter 1,…

This book presents a modern fable for middle school teachers. It is a fanciful account of finding and sharing the "Jamal papers," the minutes of that first committee thousands of years ago in which a camel was created by reconstituting a horse. The tale provides a way to bring front and center such concerns as team isolation, personality…

Describes different types of team teaching, explaining the following: why it is popular, what teachers like about team teaching, the down side to team teaching, how to handle grading, and what parents say about team teaching. The paper presents advice from experienced team teachers and offers a resource for further information. (SM)

An effective teacher must continue to learn, problem-solve, and respond to the evolving needs of his or her students. Ideally a culture of inquiry, reflection, and self-evaluation should develop. Voluntary inquiry-based reflection identifies problems and issues within a school and allows teachers and administrators to develop professional study…

This monograph discusses the findings of two federally funded research projects that brought together university, school district, and state education personnel, along with families, to find ways to weave a tapestry of inclusion in the context of general education reform efforts. Among the lessons learned were that there are seven types of threads…

Explores key issues in designing and implementing responsible and effective co-teaching programs. Defines co-teaching and illustrates a variety of manifestations of the concept. Also discusses establishing collaborative co-teaching relationships, introducing co-teaching to stakeholders, and fitting co-teaching into more conventional school…