Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) are at risk for school failure when their health needs are not met. Current studies have identified a strong connection between school success and health. This study attempted to determine (a) how schools meet the direct service health needs of children and (b) who provides those services. The study…

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…

Discusses how to make instructional improvement decisions using data-based assessment. Describes three steps in using data-based assessment: developing the right questions, collecting and analyzing the data, and providing staff support to make effective use of the data. Effective use of assessment data requires both quality data and sufficient…

This report presents concepts, procedures, and instruments to be used in studying staff development in educational settings. The report has been structured as a set of guidelines designed to help state agencies, county offices, teacher centers, universities, school districts, and local school faculties collaborate in investigating the dynamics of…

Many participant-satisfaction evaluation forms used in staff development programs are ritualistic contrivances that are poorly designed and administered. This article describes five rules for generating evaluation forms based on clarity, a decision focus, brevity, anonymity, and respondents' opportunity to make additional suggestions. Careful…

This book is part of a seven-volume series for evaluating programs and services in today's K-12 schools. It details strategies to evaluate staff-development programs, focusing on the use of formative evaluation. Following the introduction, six vignettes illustrating the application of the strategies to real-life experiences are presented. They…

Argues that experimental and field research can now demonstrate causal relationships between teaching techniques and learning, and that effective teaching practices can be taught. Urges, therefore, that improving teacher education be given high priority. (MCG)

This article presents a discussion of field utilization of staff development activities in the context of three separate training programs. Specifically, classroom implementation of knowledge and skills gained by participants in their training sessions was assessed via the Levels of Use (LoU) interview system. (Author/LMO)

An analysis of staff development practices in Texas during the year 1975-76 is provided, and four principles of effective inservice education (planning, situational design, content, and support) are outlined. The summary of findings is based on data from three unpublished dissertations, which had compiled data gathered via questionnaire from…

Needs assessment is presented as a scanning process to identify if and where interventions are required in the educational setting and also to build and support successful implementation of those processes. Themes or perspectives, which provide a general framework for the work of a needs assessment team, are outlined. Within this framework, needs…

The organizational structure of this manual parallels the evolutionary stages in school improvement--needs assessment, planning, implementation, and outcomes. The manual provides procedures for data-based management and includes within each section, sample instruments, data collection and analyses procedures, and questions for decision-making. The…

Region C Technical Assistance Center (TAC) and Region 3 Rural Technical Assistance Center (R-TAC) provide Chapter I support and technical assistance to state and local education agencies in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Region C encompasses a mix of urban centers and rural…

These papers represent the efforts of individual researchers from five countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands and the United States. Each paper reports on educational change in a different country, based on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model developed at the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education at the University of…

Discusses technology-planning processes in schools and presents two case studies of districts who used data findings to support steps for technology implementation. Highlights include planning teams; system assessment; goals focused on student learning; teachers' use of technology; staff-development programs; student/computer ratios; changes in…

At the Futures Conference held by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 1995, discussants from inside and outside the NCES considered the commissioned papers and contributed their expertise. This volume assembles the papers and commentary and summarizes some considerations for policy, research, and practice in future operations of…