Since the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era many program improvement schools were prescribed Professional Learning Communities (PLC) professional development as a corrective action by their respective Local Education Agency (LEA). Despite the adoption and implementation of many corrective action measures (including PLCs) recommended by LEA's, the…

The capacity for schools to improve student learning represents an important area of scholarship for policymakers, schools, and scholars. In understanding how to support student learning, the notion of school leadership has emerged as a key area of research interest. Understanding the influence of this literature in schools is important. As such,…

Given what system leaders must accomplish with limited resources, they must make bold decisions about their current investments to achieve high-priority goals related to implementing college- and career-ready standards. This workbook is designed to guide users through a five-step process of understanding what professional learning is available in…

Forsyth Technical Community College (FTCC) face a shortage of funding to meet the demands of students, faculty, staff and businesses. Through this practitioner research, the utilization of the college's current customer relationship management (CRM) database advanced. By leveraging technology, the researcher assisted the college in meeting the…

Leadership development programmes come in plenty internationally and a number of resources, time and money are being spent to this end. The benefits for schools, staff and pupils arising from professional development activities have been well researched into and elaborated on extensively internationally. Currently in Cyprus, leadership development…

This paper reviews data from 27 final reports of action research projects in the area of instructional coaching undertaken as part of Cycle 4 (2008-2010) of the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI). AISI was an Alberta government programme that provided funding to every school district to allow teachers to create site-based, action…

Early care and education can prepare children for school, but while some preschool and child care programs do an excellent job, others are inadequate and some may even harm healthy development. This study focuses on child care center directors to better understand why there is so much variation, and how public initiatives can better help…

This research study investigated the leadership behaviors and organizational frames utilized by two veteran superintendents of medium sized school districts in California to address issues of academic performance in their respective districts as perceived by the superintendents and their respective board members and principals. Current…

Regardless of where you are in your school improvement process, here's a book that helps you make sure you have all the right elements working for you in the right way. The authors take you through the core processes that are essential for all school improvement efforts--from establishing your mission to differentiating your supervision based on…

Professional development provides a means to build capacity among school personnel when it is delivered as part of a systematic, long-term approach to school and teacher improvement. This research examines a sustained, diocesan-wide professional development model, called the ACE Collaborative for Academic Excellence, that aims to build capacity…

This report details five principles for creating powerful classrooms and offers a new vision for professional development: (1) High Structure; (2) High Challenge; (3) Intensity; (4) Intentionality and Learning How to Learn; and (5) Inquiry and Making Learning Visible. Included are recommendations drawn from the work of the 11 community college…

Assessment, particularly formative assessment, is critical to knowing how a student is performing academically and how best to support that student. Teachers, especially new teachers, need ongoing support in developing and using both summative and formative assessments as an integral part of their instructional practice. Written collaboratively by…

How are administrators leveraging the expertise and passion in their buildings? How do they inspire enthusiasm in their teachers and improve student achievement? How do they act as an agent for change? Those are the tasks the authors are given as instructional coaches. In the beginning, they were unsure how to tackle those tasks--or even if it was…

Teacher leadership has gained attention in recent years as a plausible means by which educational reform and instructional improvement can be accomplished through ongoing, site-based professional development for teachers. This article reviews and draws conclusions across the research literature on professional development and teacher leadership to…

In this chapter, we describe the evolution of an intermediary organization, the Institute for Learning (IFL) at the University of Pittsburgh, devoted to improving teaching and learning in some of America's largest and most challenged school districts. Over the nearly 20 years of IFL's life, we have learned that design-based researchers have to…