In the Innovative Professional Development (iPD) Challenge, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in helping school districts and networks redesign their instructional support systems to better support educators in increasing student success. This Issue Focus, the second in a series, presents early reflections from MDRC's evaluation…

Adrianna Kezar recently sat down with Chancellor Tim White of the California State University system to discuss, among many other things, the newly released California State Graduation Initiative and what it will take to enact it. The key commitments of the initiative are: (1) hire more tenure-track faculty; (2) develop engaged advising; (3) solve…

This paper describes in detail a successful training program developed for sessional (part-time or nonpermanent) laboratory demonstrators employed in the Electrical Engineering Department of an Australian university. Such demonstrators play an important role in teaching practical concepts and skills in engineering. The success of the program…

This article presents an interview with Wes Taylor, the 2011 MetLife/NASSP National High School Principal of the Year. In this interview, Taylor shares credit with the teachers and staff members at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, for the school's systemic and long-lasting improvement in instruction and climate. He mentions that the…

This article presents an interview with Cathy Carnahan, the 2011 MetLife/NASSP National Middle Level Principal of the Year. Carnahan makes adult learning a priority to support student achievement at Duniway Middle School in McMinnville, Oregon. She describes her school as a community of learners that is a safe setting for teachers to lead and…

Jumpstart is a growing literacy program that is now active in 17 states in addition to the District of Columbia. The Jumpstart Model pairs children of low-income families with college mentors in the child's typical learning environment. Despite the prevalence and importance of Jumpstart, little has been written about either the general model of…

Coaching occurs when one professional works closely with another professional to increase productivity or to meet a common outcome. For a coach or mentor to be successful, the teacher must believe in the expertise the coach espouses, and the coach must believe in the teacher's abilities. Through "reflective coaching," teachers and coaches…

Sunnyside High School in rural Washington faces many tough issues common to urban schools but has shown a remarkable ability to help students at risk for academic failure. The Sunnyside Intervention Program was developed for students with a history of poor academic performance, many of whom were involved in dangerous activities, including gangs.…

The upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provides an opportunity to reconsider what factors school performance-reporting systems should include. Critics of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have pointed to the narrowing effects of the law's focus on mathematics and reading achievement, and they have called for efforts…

The author conducted annual evaluations of the Associates Program from its inception. He attended one or more of the national symposia for Associates each year, interviewed each of the Associates and submitted reports to the National Center. As the number of participants in the Associates Program approached 100 and in 2008 the National Center…

There is a significant strand of theory and research about turning around underperforming organizations; however, very little of it speaks to the unique mission and character of schools. This literature is unambiguous in its claim that leadership is the pivotal explanation for success, suggesting that efforts to better understand the nature of…

In 1988, the Chicago public school system decentralized, granting parents and communities significant resources and authority to reform their schools in dramatic ways. To track the effects of this bold experiment, the authors of "Organizing Schools for Improvement" collected a wealth of data on elementary schools in Chicago. Over a…

Calculus is one of the primary avenues for initial quantitative training of students in all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, but life science students have been found to underperform in the traditional calculus setting. As a result, and because of perceived lack of its contribution to the understanding of biology, calculus…

Urban schools serving low-income minority children face a variety of challenges related to teacher quality, resources and school infrastructure. Programs such as the GK-12 Fellows Program, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), try to mitigate some of these issues by supporting partnerships between local school districts and institutions…

A new generation of faculty is entering the academic workforce and they are increasingly dissatisfied with current working environments. Institutions must begin to address the changing nature of this new generation. This article reports on a New Faculty Orientation program based on elements of the learner-centered pedagogy. The goal was to achieve…