With the advent of No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools are being held accountable for measurable increases in student academic achievement as evidenced by performance on standardized tests. This movement has significant implications for the professional development of teachers who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that their…

This research is a follow up to a similar study published by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania in 2003 in which researchers examined alternative education policies and practices among Pennsylvania school districts. The current study extended the previous research to include information on the perceptions of administrators and teachers on the…

Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) aimed to improve teacher practice and improve student outcomes at Lanier and International High Schools in AISD. Overall, QTEL was moderately effective based on the myriad of mixed program results.

This digest discusses the use of faculty mentoring programs to empower faculty and ultimately benefit the institution and improve the quality of higher education. It refers to the literature on mentoring in terms of conceptual frameworks, mentoring arenas, and roles and functions of mentors and proteges. It briefly addresses the following aspects…

This report discusses the use of faculty mentoring programs to empower faculty and ultimately benefit the institution and improve the quality of higher education. It synthesizes the literature on mentoring in terms of conceptual frameworks, mentoring arenas, and roles and functions of mentors and proteges. The first section provides a general…

A study investigated teachers' and staff developers' perceptions and assessment of the Whole Language Network (which assists teachers in using the whole language approach), the support provided to participants, changes in teaching and assessment practices, and the effects of such changes on student attitudes and achievement. A total of 164…

In 1984-85, the New York City Public Schools received $2,374,686 from the state legislature to operate the School Community Education Program (also known as the Umbrella Program). The program consisted of 46 different projects designed to provide innovative solutions to local educational and school problems. Thirteen of these projects are…

The Classroom Management Improvement Study (CMIS) was designed to investigate a complex staff development effort in order to provide a clear explication of the treatment in the event that either researchers or practitioners desired to replicate the intervention. The treatment was directed toward introducing effective classroom management…

A feasibility study was conducted to determine if the Teacher Center concept can be a logical and productive method of serving staff development needs of Connecticut vocational educators. A questionnaire was distributed to 1150 vocational education teachers in state regional vocational technical schools, regional vocational agriculture centers,…

Prepared to provide assistance to college and university staff members in infusing career education into personnel development programs, this guide is based on the experiences of the members of Oregon's Interinstitutional Consortium for Career Education. This document presents a series of guiding principles necessary for program infusion. These…

"During the past 20 years, the skills required to succeed in the economy have changed radically, but the skills taught in most schools have changed very little. As a result of the growing mismatch between the skills of most graduates and the skills required by high-wage employers, a U.S. high school diploma is no longer a ticket to the U.S.…

Nine years after the National Science Education Standards' release, just how well do science teachers in grades 5 to 8 actually use them to plan content, define improved teaching, and assess real learning? Find out the answers to these key questions in this groundbreaking collection of 15 essays by teachers, researchers, and professors whose…

In developing the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), a special effort was made to include questions that would help determine the extent to which the characteristics of professional development policies and practices were consistent with the emerging consensus on the key features of professional development as described by Hawley and…

Researchers investigated the optimum length of teacher inservice activities where increasing teacher efficacy was the goal. Participants were elementary science teachers from seven teacher enhancement projects conducted from 1992-99. The length breakdown of each program was: 1992--6 weeks; 1994--6 weeks; 1995--4 weeks; 1996--4 weeks; 1997--4…

This paper investigates the motivational profiles of students in schools that participate in a professional development program (the CASE project), which has reported remarkable success in raising students' academic achievement. On the basis of new work on the characterization and measurement of motivational orientation, beliefs, and self-view,…