This study examined the perceptions of educators to determine if they felt that they were adequately prepared to teach in a high poverty school setting. The participants, educators from four school districts, completed a survey based on their perceptions of their own level of self-efficacy and preparedness to work in high poverty schools. The…

This report summarizes results from a survey of AISD campus-based parent support specialists who reported the numbers of parents and parent involvement activities at their schools for 2011-2012. [Funding for this report was provided by district Title I funds.]

Education Matters, with the agreement of the Edna Clark McConnell Foundation and two San Diego City, California, middle schools, has been studying the ways in which these two schools have been organizing professional development to improve teaching and learning in the context of San Diego's reform agenda. The Clark Foundation had awarded funds for…

Staff development for middle-grades educators has become increasingly important as theory, research, practice, and policy have converged to produce information and recommendations to revise and improve middle-grades education. This report includes a review of the major purposes of staff development, data on teacher reactions to staff development…

What urban middle school principals engaged in school reform felt they needed to know and the strategies that maximize their learning were studied with 23 principals involved in extended professional development. Principals valued the components of staff development that have been supported by the National Staff Development Council. (SLD)

Presents six suggestions for personalizing professional development for middle school teachers: (1) encourage openness to change; (2) facilitate teachers' self-assessment; (3) urge teachers to be learners; (4) encourage a focus on the enjoyable in teaching; (5) advocate that teachers contribute to peers' growth; and (6) promote full lives beyond…

The Georgia Framework for Integrating Technology in the Student-Centered Classroom (InTech) was created as a staff development program to prepare teachers to integrate technology, student learning, and academic goals. Findings from a survey of 68 middle school teachers, 10 with InTech training, 58 without, revealed InTech teachers showed increases…

The purpose of this study was to determine Tapp Middle School's instructional technology staff development needs, determine sustainability and staff development costs, and develop a long-range comprehensive instructional technology staff development action plan. This study also focuses on the student as the customer who deserves access to the best…

Describes members' responsibilities within effective middle school interdisciplinary teams. States that principals are responsible for hiring, orientation, teacher empowerment, and staff development, while existing team members help new members by building a new team identity and developing collaborative relationships. Asserts that new teachers…

This practicum was designed to increase middle-level teaching teams' understanding of cognitively guided instructional strategies or brain-based learning theories and to promote the incorporation of these strategies into the teaching of cross-curriculum thematic units. Twelve staff development modules based on a new perspective of learning which…

Describes the successful, grass-roots approach to staff development at Winona Middle School in Winona, Minnesota. Discusses categories of learners from early adapters to technophobes, staff training models, technical support, networking, policy plans, funding, and new challenges. (AEF)

This evaluation report describes the Quality Improvement Program Plan for Special Educators (QUIPP) which provides supplemental professional development opportunities for New York City special education professionals and paraprofessionals at the elementary, middle, and intermediate/junior high school levels. The program stresses design of the…

The Comprehensive and Cognitive Development (CCD) Program of the Kansas City (Missouri) School District has completed its sixth year of operation. The CCD Program supports the integration of assessment with instructional strategies to increase the reading comprehension and cognitive skills of middle school and senior high school students. Staff…

These three 1995 newsletter issues explore concepts and problems relevant to middle-level education. The cover story for the spring issue examines new trends in educational assessment. Additional briefs in this issue discuss team teaching, school reform as a community-wide effort, and home-school collaboration. The cover article for the Fall issue…

The manual provides a framework for two days of training in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instructional methods for monolingual special education teachers at intermediate and junior high school levels in New York City (New York) schools. The materials help teachers without ESL certification provide mandated ESL services to…