Student feedback collected through program evaluation of secondary education licensure and Master's program clinical experiences prompted us to conduct a collective self-study. We used a reflective framework for analysis and discussion of the shifts students in our courses made as they progressed from observers to practicing teachers. Along with…

If you are looking for an organic approach to purpose-driven professional learning, this is the book for you. Award-winning educator Lois Brown Easton's latest work provides a compelling case study in narrative form, a chronological PLC planning outline, and first-hand "lessons learned" about how PLCs develop, mature, and sustain themselves. You…

Developing a model for effective large-scale continuous professional development (CPD) for teachers remains a significant obstacle for many governments worldwide. This article describes the development and evolution of Vital--a CPD program designed to enhance the teaching of information communication technology in state-funded primary and…

Although several school districts in a southern US state use a three-tiered Response to Intervention (RtI) model to supplemental core reading instruction and positively impact student achievement, the model appears to have had nominal impact. The theoretical foundation for this study is anchored in a constructivist approach to education. Three…

Effective needs assessment is not an end in itself but a continuing means of meeting the needs of students and teachers. It is an integral part of other activities such as planning, operating, and evaluating school programs and teacher center activities. The key to comprehensive needs assessment is the support and cooperation of the teachers,…

A teacher inservice preference questionnaire was used to identify, categorize, and compare inservice preferences of educators, and findings indicated that workshops were ranked first as the inservice activity most preferred with conventions and professional conferences least preferred. Other categorical analysis indicated that professional…

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 Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES), a national demonstration school for the deaf in the District of Columbia and part of the Gallaudet College system, continuously updates its curriculum. In 1981, a needs assessment confirmed the need for computers in three areas: (1) administrative functions such as attendance, scheduling, and…

A project was conducted to develop an adult vocational education competency-based program using a research-based instructional systems design and to assess the application of competency-based research products being developed by the Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States in the development of adult vocational education programs.…

A comprehensive career education project in Maine was conducted on three levels: university/college-based activities; public school activities, K-12; and state department-based activities. The major objective for level I was to demonstrate to teacher educators and teacher trainees the philosophy, methods, and objectives of comprehensive career…

The goal of this project was to eliminate sex bias in education through the development of student and teacher awareness of sex bias. Four objectives were developed for the first year project: (1) the development and implementation of nonsexist curriculum in grades 4-12, (2) the development of teachers' and librarians' awareness of sexism in…

The Maryland State Department of Education is actively involved in the development of a five-year state plan for career education. The plan is based upon data derived from a student needs assessment, a survey of LEAs, a survey of counselor competencies, and the AIR Survey of Career Education in the public schools which sampled ten districts in…