Modern-day educators often share a sense they lack voice and agency with school administration. A classic example is curriculum development, where third-party designers develop uncontextualized curricula, and teachers then must implement the design even if inefficient and ineffective. What happens if this identical situation occurs at the program…

The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs -- which prepare the majority of school principals -- have struggled with how to make the fundamental changes needed to prepare principals for today's schools. This report shares lessons…

This study used focus groups to create building blocks for the creation of a collaborative program consisting of a university and a school district for the preparation of principals. The focus groups of practitioners considered recommendations from researchers and applied it to the context of their experiences to develop the essentials of a…

In U.S. K-12 public education, incentive pay for educators remains firmly fixed as a high-interest policy topic and has recently become a popular reform initiative in many school systems. The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), created in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Education, is at the forefront of this policy movement and has provided hundreds of…

This report presents findings from the second year of a multi-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program and background information about the design and implementation of the District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE) program. The TEEG and DATE programs operating in Texas make up the largest state-funded performance…

Scarborough (Ontario) School District Area 10 has had a "New Teacher Support Committee" since September 1991, the focus of which is the support of beginning teachers. During the fall of the 1991-92 school year, Area 10 elementary schools participated in a first year teacher orientation program designed to help teachers new to the…

This report summarizes a survey of participants in a teacher training program for the First Steps project, which provides additional support for development of literacy and numeracy among "at-risk" students in Western Australia schools. The training program was to assist teachers in implementing the program in their schools. Respondents…

This study examines eight exemplary pre- and in-service principal development programs. The programs were chosen both because they provide evidence of strong outcomes in preparing school leaders and because, in combination, they represent a variety of approaches with respect to their designs, policy contexts, and the nature of partnerships between…

Each year the Faculty of Education, University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada), receives applications from potential teachers with excellent profiles but who lack teaching experience. These applicants are possible candidates for the Teacher Apprenticeship Program (TAP), an alternative teacher education program. Those selected are placed in regular…