Background: The need to support new teachers in urban public schools is well established, given current shortages and research that highlights serious issues with teacher retention. Debate continues about approaches to support for new teachers, including questions about the importance of developing an inquiry stance toward teaching. As more…

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is the latest development in a long history of standards-based-reform in the United States. As of November 4, 2011, 46 states and the District of Columbia have adopted new curricular standards, called the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). These states and the District of Columbia are now implementing…

Case studies of Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) in the Iowa project included four high schools that have been practicing this professional development model for the last five years. The schools, AHST Secondary School, Cedar Falls High School, Spencer High and Middle Schools and Valley High School were visited in April, 2011. The visits included…

Schools are increasingly integrating multidisciplinary education into their programmes. The Minister of Education, Culture and Science has introduced a new, integrated science subject in secondary education in the Netherlands, called Nature, Life and Technology (NLT). This research note describes the design of a generic model for a professional…

The "What Works Clearinghouse" guidelines for high-quality professional development were used to develop a Tell, Show, Try, and Apply (TSTA) method of training. This method was used to train teachers to align instruction to grade-level content for students with severe developmental disabilities. A total of 193 teachers of students who…

In November 2004, State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick convened the Maryland Social Studies Task Force. The Task Force was charged with examining issues related to social studies education and recommending ways to improve social studies instruction in Maryland's public schools. The Task Force formed four Subcommittees, each examining…

In 2008, educational leaders from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) assigned a group of turnaround specialists to work in four failing public schools in a large, urban school district in Phoenix, Arizona in hopes of improving those schools. The utilization of turnaround specialists in failing schools was Arizona's method of enacting…

In an effort to improve its mathematics education, the state of Georgia instituted a performance-based curriculum in the high schools during the 2008 school year. With the implementation of this new curriculum, teachers needed resources and the opportunity to collaborate regularly. The problem this project-based study addressed was how to refine a…

This study focuses on an analysis of a professional development program known as lesson study via data obtained during an in-service professional development program for secondary school science teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine the self-efficacy beliefs of one group of science teachers related to their experiences in a lesson…

Recruiting quality teachers is a top priority for school districts across the country. However, recent research demonstrates that an even greater challenge facing schools is retaining newly recruited teachers, particularly in urban school settings. This article analyzes the effects of two key components of many formal induction programs--mentoring…

This exploratory study addressed the scarcity of research into professional development for school-wide positive behavior support. A train-the-trainer model was designed. These principles were embedded within the recommended guidelines for implementing school-wide positive behavior support. School-based individuals were selected by building…

Just when educators are learning more about what constitutes effective professional development, a collaborative team of education researchers and practitioners have developed, tested, and implemented a cost-effective method of measuring and reporting on the quality of teacher professional development. The teacher professional development analysis…

The requirement in the USA of the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) that every classroom has a highly qualified teacher, coupled with the current high-stakes testing environment, creates the need for all principals to be knowledgeable about quality staff development systems. One aspect of effective staff development is whether teachers adopt the…

This article presents findings from an ethnographic study that explored how participation in an educator network contributed to the production of meaning, identity, and agency among the teachers and school district administrators involved. Prominent in this process were the differences between practice in the network, consisting of dialogue…

A randomized, controlled study was conducted to assess the effects of the Nuestros Ninos professional development program on classroom practices and child outcomes related to language development and early literacy skills in both English and Spanish. Fifty-five teachers and 193 Latino dual language learners (DLLs) enrolled in the North Carolina…