Purpose: Reformers, policymakers, and researchers have given considerable attention to organizational capacity in schools, especially in those schools that perpetuate or exacerbate achievement gaps among diverse student groups and reproduce social inequalities. There is an emerging consensus about key dimensions of school capacity and how they can…

Schools and districts invest a great deal of time and money in professional development for teachers through instructional coaching. With this effort comes the responsibility to design coaching programs that have the greatest potential to improve classroom instruction and, in turn, increase student learning. What research is available to help…

The University of Sydney is a large, research-intensive, campus-based Australian University. Since 2004 a strategic initiative of project-based eLearning support has been creating teams of non-academic and academic staff, who have worked together to develop online resources to meet identified needs. The University's aims in continuing to provide…

Recognizing that student achievement is intrinsically linked to high-quality teaching, Jodi Peine offers an invaluable guide that helps educational leaders strengthen teachers' instructional practice with an individualized and robust professional development process. The author provides administrators and staff developers with step-by-step…

Some limitations of instructional development are delineated, as are some of its potential adverse consequences. Finally, some possible strategies are advanced for rectifying undesirable impacts. (Author)

To learn the extent to which a revised elementary science program for grades 3 to 6 had been implemented in the 81 elementary schools of the Jefferson County (Colorado) School District, program developers adopted an assessment system based on the innovation configurations concept. The evolution of this system into an ongoing program for…

This sourcebook contains a collection of articles on educational topics and is designed to be used as a resource for inservice teacher programs at the secondary level. The first section is devoted to curriculum theory and contains writings on the theoretical underpinnings and relevant background for practical work with students. Inservice is the…

A program of simultaneous curriculum change in ten Indonesian medical schools is described, in which 75 percent of the departments are using sets of instructional objectives for both teaching and evaluating student performance. An "Educational Bureau" at each school serves as a kind of research and development unit. (Author/LBH)

The "Essentials of Best Practice in Professional Development for Sustained Change Model" is based on recent research in professional development, adult learning theory, shared leadership, effective schools, and the change process. The model views increased student learning as the goal; schools as the unit of change; professional…

The principal discussion in this paper focuses on the student, teacher, administrator, and community as agents of educational change and on the conjectured future change in the field of language instruction. Additional comments on the fourth volume of the ACTFL-sponsored annual review of language instruction, "Foreign Language Education: A…

The central purpose of this study was to identify the role of state field supervision of vocational education in Ohio in relation to change as perceived by supervisors and their reference groups. The primary task was accomplished in part by testing the following hypotheses: (1) The supervisors' reference groups differ in their perception of the…

North Carolina's Basic Education Program was adopted in 1985 and will be completely implemented by 1993. The North Carolina General Assembly has furnished much of the necessary funds. The program provides higher standards, smaller classes, the chance to become fluent in a foreign language, more instructional materials, counseling, dropout…

A plan is proposed for improving the teacher education curriculum and programming in Nigeria, with the objectives of improving instructional quality, learning more about the relationship of teacher education curriculum to student achievement, and discovering the capabilities of teacher training institutions. (MSE)

In this article, the author describes the evolution of Electronic Collaborative Educational Learning Laboratory (ECELL) and shares some of the insights that she has gained over the past five years. ECELL was created as "Collaborative Learning Laboratory" for both pre-service and in-service teachers aimed at transforming the design and…