To what extent school improvement processes can be initiated and sustained from the outside has been a relevant question for policy-makers seeking to increase quality in education. Since 2008, the Chilean Government is strongly promoting the use of external technical support (ETS) services to support school improvement processes, as part of the…

Eight school districts in Rhode Island formed the East Bay Professional Learning Community to launch a joint effort to develop a culture of assessment literacy through ongoing professional learning focused on team-specific action plans tightly aligned to school, district, and state initiatives. To accomplish this, the districts pooled their…

This document summarizes comments from 539 individuals on a literacy framework for Alberta, provided during the Alberta Literacy Forum held in Edmonton from April 14 to 16, 2008. The Forum was Alberta's contribution to the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) Pan-Canadian Interactive Literacy Forum, which involved all of Canada's…

In 2003, Terrence Martell, a finance professor at the City University of New York's Baruch College, encountered a classroom of 80 seniors who could navigate the complex intricacies of the futures markets and commodities trading. But when he asked them to write a report explaining to a commodity pool operator why he or she should retain the student…

While most K-12 technology leaders appreciate that technology refresh--the periodic replacement of an organization's technology--is more complex than shopping for appliances, they do not necessarily have the tools to create a sustainable and comprehensive plan to upgrade their assets. Having a solid tech refresh plan helps ensure that teachers and…

A personal approach to instructional development that uses teaching consultants is described and illustrated with anecdotes from the first year of one such service at a large midwestern university. This individualized approach emphasizes the particular needs, interests, and limitations of each teacher-client on a case-by-case basis. (JMD)

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is renewing its commitment to the enhancement of literacy in the developing countries of the Commonwealth by establishing a program area focused on Literacy and Livelihoods. While the program activities will build on the work COL is already engaged in, they will also be informed through consultation with…

In 1997, twelve Karen Burmese teachers brought a Vision Paper to the Tham Hin refugee camp in Thailand. The teachers had recently written this Paper after much consultation with their Mergui-Tavoy villagers, students, leaders, and school dropouts. Over the following five years teams developed a project outlining 10 steps to educational reform,…

The purpose of the Center for Helping Organizations Improve Choice in Education (CHOICE) project, the scope of its activities, and evaluations of the effectiveness of those activities are described. One major project goal was to encourage and facilitate institutional efforts to provide more complete and accurate information to prospective…

Today’s schools are complex systems with complex problems. Addressing those problems often requires significant change efforts. However, many school administrators don’t know how to select a focus for these efforts or how to lead staff through such changes--and even if they did, the job is too large for one person. One solution to this dilemma is…