A clear and comprehensive guide to evaluating and supporting instructional coaches and coaching programs, including how to recruit, hire, and retain effective coaches. With sound practices in place to evaluate coaching programs, instructional coaches will become better partners, teachers will become better mentors, and students will become better…

The purpose of this guide is to assist Tier 3 or MTSS District Teams in supporting school level and student level implementation of Tier 3 supports. These system features include procedures for teaming, professional development/training, coaching, data systems and evaluation, student support provisions and student and family engagement.

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…

This paper presents a number of general principles and guidelines for the development of an emotional intelligence training program designed to foster emotional abilities in gifted students. The presented guidelines underscore the need for EI theory-driven program planning geared to the needs of gifted students; integrating activities into routine…

This toolkit is developed as a resource for providers of teaching-related continuing professional development (CPD) in higher education (HE). It focuses on capturing the longer-term value and impact of CPD for teachers and learners, and moving away from immediate satisfaction measures. It is informed by the literature on evaluating higher…

Helping more students achieve their dreams involves identifying a wider set of student needs--including financial challenges and family responsibilities--and offering redesigned support services to meet them holistically. This holistic student supports approach emphasizes the need for colleges to redefine the way they understand, design, integrate…

When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students' education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller "School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action," presents tools and guidelines to help develop more…

As researchers, decision-makers, and practitioners focus on continuous improvement in education, local-level change is gaining importance. Yet, many local school improvement efforts fail to be fully implemented. Even those that are fully implemented often fail to sustain improvements because the schools are embedded in systems that face multiple…

This guide is for superintendents, principals, staff developers, teachers and professional development providers--in short for anyone who has a stake in ensuring that professional learning has greater impact on improving practice and increasing student learning. The purpose of this guide is to help schools, districts, and SU/LEAs put in place…

Beginning teachers face significant challenges as they assume the complex work of teaching while they are still learning to teach. In addition to the activities involved with learning to effectively teach, they must also learn to work with others; collaborate with colleagues, administrators, paraprofessionals, and parents; and manage varied…

This workbook guides a team in reviewing, revising, or replacing an existing professional learning system. The process outlined and the tools included support the team in conducting all aspects of its work, usually done over several months, with continuous progress monitoring and input from research, experts, and constituents. The workbook is…

School principals can foster effective literacy instruction by orchestrating community collaboration in an ongoing cycle of literacy program development, implementation, evaluation, and revision outlined in this ten-step plan. The steps address forming a community advisory board, appointing a building literacy leader, forming a literacy team,…

More districts are turning to one-to-one computing, which puts a laptop in the hands of every student. This ambitious undertaking can bring challenges when it comes to training teachers how to use the technology--and how to teach students to use it. In 2005, Springfield Public Schools in Springfield, Oregon, provided Apple laptops for 300 middle…

Although school administrators consider supporting and sustaining teachers' professional development a priority, more pressing day-to-day imperatives often eclipse this goal. "Supporting and Sustaining Teachers' Professional Development" specifically targets busy school principals who want practical suggestions for how to balance these everyday…

This booklet provides an introduction to project-based instruction, explaining the research-based rationale for using the approach and outlining how the approach can increase students' engagement and knowledge retention. It offers guidelines for planning and implementing projects and includes a checklist of important things to keep in mind when…