The National Academy of Education (NAEd) undertook this consensus report on the evaluation and improvement of teacher preparation programs (TPPs). Specifically, this consensus report aims to (1) identify and disseminate best practices for evaluating and improving TPPs to promote teacher effectiveness and student achievement; (2) provide…

The "Integrated Approaches to Supporting Child Development and Improving Family Economic Security" project was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and Northwestern University for the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human…

Schools are learning organisations. They continuously strive to do better for the children and young people in their charge. In doing so, they try new things, seek to learn from those experiences, and work to adopt and embed the practices that work best. Implementation is a key aspect of what schools do to improve, and yet it is a domain of school…

In the field of medicine, research and practice are joined in teaching hospitals. In these institutions, researchers work alongside doctors to incorporate recent advances in medical research into practice and track results. There is a growing movement in the field of education to create analogous institutions in education called research schools.…

The REDSIL model for ongoing evaluation of gifted education programs involves interviewing stakeholders, isolating and categorizing critical study issues, designing a data collection plan that uses several forms of qualitative methods, implementing the plan, analyzing data, searching literature relative to each issue, analyzing data again, and…

This paper argues the merits of including the topic of classroom psychosocial environment in the curriculum of science teacher education programs, on the assumption that having a positive classroom environment is an educationally desirable end in its own right. Discussions focus on the potential of the classroom environment as a way of: (1)…

This article introduces the issue of articles on research assessments and rankings. It focuses on the British Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs) and New Zealand's Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF). It contrasts these with systems that are not tied to funding formulas and emphasise quality enhancement rather than quality assurance. It…

Participants in the "Beyond the Looking Glass" Conference established a set of objectives for each of the three teacher education constituencies: practice, policy, and research. The teacher education continuum of preservice, induction, and inservice served as one dimension of a framework for structuring dialogue, discussion, and…

Rural schools in Utah responded to state and local calls for school reform by implementing Outcome Based Education (OBE) programs beginning in March 1984. Significant improvements in learning have occurred as measured by test scores. Workshops introduced rural educators to OBE which provided a philosophical and operational framework for school…

A synthesis is presented of the outcomes of the "Beyond the Looking Glass" Conference which brought together educational practitioners, policy makers, and researchers to make concrete suggestions for what should be done to improve the conditions, processes, and effects of teacher education. Three major points of agreement formed the…

Describes a one-semester course in environmental chemistry for students who have had a full year of introductory level chemistry. Illustrates how material from this upper-level course was integrated into a general chemistry course. Examples of content are provided. (CW)

Action Research on Change in Schools (ARCS) was a two-year collaborative action research project involving two groups of middle/junior high school teachers, one in Michigan and one in New Hampshire. While the purpose of the project for the university researchers was to examine individual change within the framework of collaborative action…

Recognizing that some of the lessons educational television teaches children are cultural--how to be members of their own cultural group, for example, or what other cultural groups are like--a study developed qualitative methods for the formative evaluation of the accuracy of an educational television program's cultural content with respect to the…

The Austin (Texas) Independent School District's Office of Research and Evaluation revised its surveying procedures in 1982. To reduce the demands on teachers and administrators, various surveys were consolidated and administered on a regular basis. Teachers and administrators were surveyed every fall and spring, high school students in winter,…

From October 1982 through May 1984, the Council for Community Services--a private, not-for-profit community planning council--carried out an Institutional Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Project, in close cooperation with the state of Rhode Island's Office of the Child Advocate. The project approach relied heavily on monitoring teams of…