A range of education initiatives in the U.S. are focusing on ways to improve curriculum, instruction, teacher development, and student assessment related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Key indicators to monitor the quality of STEM education have been proposed by the National Research Council. This paper is…

This article draws on qualitative evidence from an evaluation of the "Greater Tomorrow" Crèche and Ballyhaunis Community Preschool in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, Ireland in 2016. The article focuses on the approach to practice and the underlying ethos of these two services, reflecting a clearly articulated respect for diversity and the…

Two departments in a secondary school in England participated in "lesson study" projects over a five-month period to explore its usefulness as a vehicle for professional development. Through a cycle of two research lessons, conducted separately in each department, teachers identified challenges that inhibited the learning of their…

This study describes key challenges and necessary supports related to implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) identified by rural math educators in the Northeast. The research team interviewed state and district math coordinators and surveyed teachers in Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, to assess their…

Proposals made by the European Commission in 2007 led to the Education Council adopting, for the first time, a European agenda for improving the quality of teaching and teacher education. This article reports on a small-scale longitudinal interview-based study with teachers in England, Norway and Germany demonstrating that while opportunities for…

In this report, the authors present some initial findings on the early implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in California. They report on their interviews with educators in all regions of the state, and on their views of how implementation is proceeding in their schools and districts. The authors then review some of the key…

The purpose of this study was to determine if increasing faculty professionalism is a viable strategy for raising the quality of instruction at a Chinese university. In this study, increasing faculty professionalism refers to increases in regards to six areas of faculty work: academic freedom, work balance, governance, reward systems, salary, and…

The Natural Start Alliance is a new initiative of the North American Association for Environmental Education. Natural Start was created to support and expand early childhood environmental education (ECEE) by creating a network of organizations, educators, parents, and others who care about using environmental education to support young children's…

A quality improvement system (QIS) is an intentional effort to raise the quality of afterschool programming in an ongoing, organized fashion. There are a number of reasons the QIS is gaining popularity. The main reasons community leaders are drawn to improving quality is that they know that 1) higher quality programs will mean better experiences…

Professional development (PD) is essential for primary school teachers to meet the demands of the education system. Quality PD is aligned with classroom conditions, school contexts and teachers' daily experiences. The purpose of the study was to explore primary teachers' experiences of a 6-week physical education professional development programme…

During the fall of 2012, the Donnell-Kay Foundation surveyed the state's superintendents and charter network leaders to better understand the principalship in Colorado today. Some key findings of the survey are presented in this report. The findings include perceptions that there is a shortage of quality leaders to run Colorado's schools, that the…

This study explores the question of how Boston Public Schools (BPS) can strengthen and support autonomy and accountability across its portfolio to promote innovation and expand access to equity and high performance. Some of the specific questions guiding this work are: (1) Should all schools within BPS operate within autonomous structures? (2) Is…

This paper examines the effectiveness of a professional development model (PDM) devised as part of a research project carried out to support early childhood professionals in Ireland in enhancing their pedagogy. The PDM was constructed on a socio-cultural theoretical framework whereby Vygotsky's zone of proximal development was applied in the…

This research study used in-depth interviews to examine a professional development book club of teacher educators exploring their beliefs about language diversity and how to prepare future teachers for culturally and linguistically diverse schools. Findings include the centrality of lived experiences, conflicting ideas of high-quality pedagogy and…

This case study examines the attitudes of the secondary and middle school teachers at one school in Lebanon regarding the effect of the school's professional development (PD) programs on the quality of their teaching practices and motivation. It also examines teachers' attitudes regarding PD as well as their recommendations to improve the quality…