Professional development is vital to the success of afterschool programs. Effective professional development enhances afterschool program quality by facilitating staff performance and knowledge; in addition, professional development is vital for improving student learning outcomes (Bouffard & Little, 2004; Hall & Surr, 2005; Joyce &…

With the current emphasis on Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers, it is important to ensure that every member of staff has the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding as outlined in the professional and occupational standards for the school workforce. As your practical guide to developing your staff,…

Site-based professional development is an important component of instructional leadership in every school, yet many schools struggle to define and maintain a systematic approach to staff development. The need to stay informed about current strategies and research that relates to effective instruction is not new to education leaders, but they are…

Better organization and more efficient use of time are the key elements of a plan to boost student achievement at a Virginia district. Teachers focus almost all classroom time on direct instruction, guided practice, core courses, and applications to the real world. At the secondary level, teachers now also emphasize critical thinking and problem…

Borrowing from Madeline Hunter, school districts should define staff development as school- or district-wide efforts to improve the quality of teacher decision-making. This article outlines a six-step process (including needs assessment, brainstorming, strategic plannning, communicating plans, coaching for effectiveness, and periodic monitoring)…

Changing ideas about staff development means districts must begin calculating time and money being spent to support staff development. This paper examines how some schools manage time and money related to staff development, explains how to tie staff development time to money, discusses states' influence in staff development, and addresses the need…

Describes a North Carolina elementary principal's efforts to turn around two schools by adopting the Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles Model. The first school succeeded by recruiting all teachers, using small-group techniques, redesigning classroom space, and developing hands-on math materials for each grade level. Both teacher and administrator…

This issue contains several articles synthesizing research on effective schools conducted by the Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL). Six "folios," or handouts, intended for dissemination to teachers, review the research and make specific suggestions for teachers on: (1) beginning the school year; (2) time management; (3)…

This booklet provides a succinct guide to effective management procedures, including whether and how to take on projects, estimation of costs prior to project bids, project management tools, case studies, and practical exercises for staff development activities. Chapter 1 investigates why institutions take on projects, issues involved, benefits…

Considers policy formation for libraries providing Internet access to users. Topics include budget issues; staffing, including training; patron use, including time limits, downloading, and printing; library service and programs; legal issues, including intellectual freedom, copyright, and institutional liability; and sample policies available on…

An accountability model has been derived from a research based staff development model used in secondary school classrooms. This accountability model contains four components: (1) baseline/pretest; (2) inform; (3) guided practice; and (4) post-test observations. In the first component, teachers are observed; individual profiles of behavior are…

Discusses the status of training courses conducted by computer manufacturers for their employees, including types of training, trainee classification, course arrangement, fees, examples of courses provided by manufacturers, trends, and future expectations. (MBR)

The Development and Demonstration project has trained interns to lead Effective Use of Time inservice workshops for secondary school teachers of basic reading and mathematical skills. These interns then returned to their home bases and trained teachers who could in turn train other teachers to use the Stallings Effective Use of Time methods. The…

A project was conducted to determine the need for and to create a distance learning-based staff development program for adult literacy instructors throughout Pennsylvania. Each of Pennsylvania's 306 adult literacy programs was sent a survey regarding their staff members' access to and knowledge about distance learning technology. Of the 100…