Many professionals in the early childhood field are inspired by community-driven initiatives that hold great promise for transforming outcomes for the youngest children and their families. However, most collective impact efforts are mobilized in large urban areas, where early childhood professionals and civic leaders take the lead. New Mexico has…

Over a three-year period educators at an urban elementary school were interviewed about a Response to Intervention model from development to implementation supported by professional development within a university-school partnership. While the model was initially viewed as an administrative directive, in Year 2 educators began to assume…

Compares definitions and core elements of learning organizations promulgated by Peter Senge, Victoria Marsick and Karen Watkins, Nancy Dixon, Michael Marquardt, Mike Pedler, and others. Discusses leadership implications and the need for employees to create a new learning infrastructure incorporating new leaders, critical thinking, and envisioning.…

This fact sheet focuses on principles and practices of collaboration, especially between community crisis nursery and respite care services for families of children with special needs. First, the paper distinguishes among various ways to share resources, including networking, coordination, cooperation, and then collaboration, which is seen as…

This booklet describes one of the earliest staff development models to support school-based improvement, the RPTIM model. The letters "RPTIM" represent the five stages of the school-based approach to staff development--readiness, planning, training, implementation, and maintenance. The model is based on the belief that the school is the primary…

This article delineates an organizational systems framework for exploring team utilization possibilities in schools and provides guidelines for deciding when and how teams might be utilized. (Author/PN)

This article proposes rules of thumb about the teacher education design process. The rules are grounded in the attempts at reforming teacher education at Washington University in the early 1970s, at a time during which a year-long, field-based alternative to the traditional elementary program was operated. (IAH)

The Staff Development Team of the Columbus City Schools (Nebraska), composed of three teachers and three administrators, emphasizes the need for long-range planning in its design of an inservice model for the school district. Emphasis was placed on identifying and addressing the unique needs of teachers within the school district. The model also…

Elements that the University of Akron, Furman University, and Wichita State University believe to be essential for mounting a successful program for change are identified: definition of institutional mission, top administrative support, leadership development, comprehensive change programs, emphasis on communication and process, and merging of…

This document was prepared in response to the 1992 Rehabilitation Act Amendments (P.L. 102-569), which provide a legal basis for greater consumer involvement in rehabilitation services. The focus of this document is to: (1) show how persons with disabilities can better participate in their rehabilitation programs; (2) lay the foundation for…

A management planning model developed by Furman University is described. The model is a decentralized participative approach to institutional governance that stresses decision-making based on use of appropriate research and allocation of resources based on management by objectives. (MLW)

The "Essentials of Best Practice in Professional Development for Sustained Change Model" is based on recent research in professional development, adult learning theory, shared leadership, effective schools, and the change process. The model views increased student learning as the goal; schools as the unit of change; professional…

This practical guide to the process of planning educational programs for adults explains the key challenges of planning in the real world of conflicting interests and power relations. Part 1 draws attention to the importance of program planning practice in adult education (Chapter 1) and offers a model of what adult educators actually do when…

Described are six elementary schools in Virginia that were judged as meeting nine criteria for programs facilitating participatory decision-making by teachers. The term "participatory decision-making" refers to the sharing of decisions on school policies and practices between teachers and school administrators. Information on the…

The Worker Education Program (WEP) provided workplace programs for 1,000 members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE) in Chicago, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. It was sponsored by a partnership among the Chicago Teachers' Center of Northeastern Illinois University, the Central States Joint Board of UNITE, and…