Nearly two decades of research has taught some powerful lessons about how to design and implement meaningful and effective professional development for teachers. This newsletter examines the characteristics of high-quality professional development and offers some suggestions for improving its impact and effectiveness. For reform efforts centered…

The report and an accompanying executive summary of a statewide needs assessment on young handicapped children in Iowa examine services available, effectiveness of services, and needed changes. The introduction provides an overview of State Planning Grants, Iowa's history of early childhood special education, and this project's approach to…

Middle level schools have special needs because of the characteristics of the age group served. Staff development is crucial for middle schools. Its purposes and major planning components are presented in this paper. Most mid-level educators were prepared for elementary or high school teaching and have a limited knowledge of early adolescent…

In January 1985, the Evaluation and Training Institute (ETI) contracted with the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to produce a media-based inservice program for vocational instructors and student services staff that addressed issues of student access. The objectives of the program were to: (1) utilize input from…

Effective school board leadership based on involvement and example can effectively enhance teacher performance. The first of five strategies presented to encourage maximum performance is the "Science of Teaching Program," allowing staff members, in a six-day seminar format, the opportunity to be exposed to a framework for making wise professional…

This study examines local, ongoing inservice practices and programs for school board members in Pennsylvania in order to devise a program that local districts can adapt or adopt in response to their own needs. Following a brief introduction, a summary describes how data for the study were gathered by means of a series of interviews and…

This report documents the experiments by the Getty Center for Education in the Arts to research and develop content and teaching practices in school visual arts programs. An 18-month Rand Corporation study, begun in 1982, investigated discipline based art education (DBAE) visual arts programs in 7 cross country school districts. The study's two…

This report summarizes results of a survey of states, teacher centers, and professional organizations on the status of teacher inservice and staff development. The 43 states and the District of Columbia that responded to the survey have a state level plan for both inservice and professional development. Some, by law, require implementation of the…

This paper describes the Oklahoma Statewide Training and Regional Support (STARS) program, a system of early intervention inservice training developed to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part H. Major challenges included identification of technical assistance needs, facilitation of training attendance, identification…

The document contains the annual reports (1983/84 and 1984/85) of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District's gifted and talented program. Major accomplishments of the first year were reorganization with the implementation of the AIM High program at the elementary level and an honors program at the secondary level; design and implementation…

The report summarizes findings and recommendations of a Virginia Department of Education Task Force concerning the establishment of comprehensive hearing screening programs in Virginia's public schools. Special emphasis was on findings of Project HEAR (Hearing Education and Resources) which found that mass hearing screenings could be conducted in…

Addressing professional and popular concern about identifying and adequately rewarding excellent teachers, the authors describe a proposal for selecting master/mentor teachers and utilizing them in demonstration schools. There are six specific elements that should make any master teacher proposal realistic and educationally and economically…

This document tracks the 1983 implementation in 11 New York City schools of the Program to Raise Educational Performance (PREP), designed for ninth graders who do not meet high school entrance requirements. Under the program, students may enter high school, take credit courses, and also receive special support and theme-related remedial reading…

This guide presents the Iowa standard for developing a plan to provide at risk students with the additional help they need to succeed. The standard requires a linkage of local, state, and federal resources within each local education agency. Section 1 is an introduction. Section 2 presents a statement of the objectives and the specific provisions…

A conceptual framework that provides a mechanism for anticipating the worth and potential success of staff development activities, in advance of their implementation, is described. In the first section, descriptions are given of the four main components of the staff development framework: defining staff development, salient organizational…