The school environment offers a unique platform for health promotion work with children and young people. Increasingly multifaceted health problems among children and young people and their families require investments in multiprofessional collaboration in schools. The aim of this study was to investigate teaching staff's perceptions of the school…

In "Effective Literacy Coaching: Building Expertise and a Culture of Literacy," literacy experts Shari Frost, Roberta Buhle, and Camille Blachowicz provide more than 50 practical activities designed to help K-12 literacy professionals: (1) Assess the current literacy program; (2) Plan changes that will foster a culture of literacy; (3) Collaborate…

Offers points for consideration by both school boards and charter-school advocates. Important elements of a successful charter school include vision, hands-on administrators, a commitment to staff development, and founders who also serve as maintainers. (LMI)

This article describes efforts in Colorado to develop collaborative relationships among educators to better meet needs of students with disabilities. The article stresses the importance of developing common understanding, developing a full array of services within the delivery system, and addressing school scheduling issues. (JDD)

School districts considering a mentoring program need to consider four things: (1) the reasons for a teacher mentor program; (2) how to start such a program; (3) administrative support needed for a successful program; and (4) pitfalls to avoid. The reasons for having a mentor program are that it benefits the new teacher, the mentor, and the…

A discussion of school politics: the techniques educators use to advance their interests with their peers and with the community. (SJL)

Academic alliances bring school and college teachers together within subject areas as a community of inquiry. Activities and membership vary according to needs and objectives. A project to increase alliances from the current 250 to about 700 is focusing on deliberate inclusion of elementary teachers and faculty from traditionally Black colleges.…

For the past three years, case studies have been conducted of a school district's implementation of the California Mentor Teacher Program. For two of the case studies, interview data of mentors and their mentees were distilled into vignettes about how mentors and teachers worked together. At the end of this project, researchers used several…

Increasing attention to mentoring in the teaching profession in recent years has been accompanied by a proliferation of programs, literature and expertise related to experienced teachers helping new teachers. To assess the extent to which there is a common set of functions performed by teacher mentors, a two-phase study of mentoring was…

Operating on the premise that teachers who continue to learn make more effective instructors, this book describes several strategies and approaches for continued teacher development. Activities such as coaching or advising each other, attending institutes, learning and putting into practice new teaching techniques or strategies, or conducting…

This staff development module is part of one of three groups of career guidance modules developed, field-tested, and revised by a six-state consortium coordinated by the American Institutes for Research. This module is designed for guidance personnel who work in counseling and guidance with students in school settings, grades K-12, and especially…

The California Mentor Teacher Program is unique among statewide mentor teacher initiatives in its size, longevity, stipends for mentor teachers, and the discretion it allows local education agencies. The shared perspectives of a mentor, a local administrator, and a state administrator trace the legislative and policy history of this program. (SLD)

A project to promote collaboration between child and adult literacy educators in a family English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) literacy program is described. It arose from conflicting opinions and concerns voiced by teachers familiar with different student groups and with different instructional frames of reference. Quarterly teacher preplanning…

In this resource, educational coach Karla Reiss helps superintendents, principals, and teachers understand the fundamentals of effective leadership coaching programs that result in long-lasting educational change. Using a balance of theory and practice, Reiss offers 11 core competencies adopted by the rapidly growing coaching profession including…

Authentic performance assessments--when used simultaneously with matching curricular practices--are a promising development for practitioners and students alike. A major benefit for practitioners appears to be the opportunity to redefine the curriculum and guide instruction. Benefits for students include the opportunity to engage in authentic work…