Since 2007, Texas' reading scores had been declining, and there was a shortage of qualified teachers trained in effective reading practices. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) conceptualized Reading Academies where teachers learn, practice, implement and reflect. Cohort Leaders serve as the lead facilitators for the new K-3 Reading Academies. TEA…

This document is the second in a series of evaluation reports by the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education at the University of Texas at Austin, assessing the state of teacher centering in Texas and the effects of the University of Houston's Project on School-Based Teacher Educators (SBTE), initiated to create a network of teacher…

This study represents the first portion of a two-year program designed to gather baseline data indicating the present state of teacher centering in Texas. The questionnaire designed for the survey focused on three areas: (1) the organization and workings of the teacher center; (2) the communication paths and media within and between teacher…

Although much has been written to describe the changing role of teachers in the professional-development school, little is known about the role of the principal in bringing about educational change. This paper describes the role of the principal and the issues involved in implementing change in Texas Professional-Development Schools (PDSs). The…

The first section of this report recapitualizes the Texas Teacher Center Project in history. The broad goal of the project is to improve teacher education throughout the state of Texas but, for the purposes of this report, this long-range and generalized goal is categorized into four concrete objectives: (1) changing preservice education programs;…

This document is a report on the activity of Texas Teacher Centers over a two-year period. The two-year study that this report is part of had as its focus assessing the activity of the teacher centers and the degree of awareness and use of concepts and products developed by the School-Based Teacher Educator Project. The stated goals of this…

Section 1 of this booklet presents a chart listing the 53 participating centers in the Local Cooperative Teacher Education Center (LCTEC) program, which is funded by the Texas Education Agency in conjunction with federal block grant money. The centers were developed to improve the quality of field experience programs for student teaching through…

This collection of articles offers viewpoints on issues, concerns, and processes related to the teacher education activities of Teacher Corps Projects in the state of Texas. The first section sets forth a definition for inservice education, a perspective of its past, present, and future, and the impact of innovations on teacher and teacher…

A major criticism leveled at professional education faculty appears to be that their elementary or secondary school experience is often outdated and inadequate. The purpose of this study was to explore the validity of this criticism. A questionnaire designed to investigate the qualifications and elementary secondary teaching experience of teacher…

The goal of this project is twofold: first, to improve teacher education by developing a set of competency specifications for the role of school based teacher educators and developing a prototype set of training materials for this role; second, to develop a cooperative network among teacher centers for developing, training, and recognizing the…

The basic question addressed in this monograph is whether credentialing the preservice or inservice school based teacher educator is necessary and/or desirable. To study this question, a series of related issues were posed and investigated: (1) Is there a need for credentialing? (2) What institution would award the credential, and should…

The School Based Teacher Educators Project (SBTE) had as one of its major goals the development of a set of competency specifications for the role of school based teacher educators. This paper describes the process that was used to identify the competencies. A number of different approaches have been advocated by various educators for identifying…

The results of the research and planning activities for the first year's operation of the School Based Teacher Educator (SBTE) project are reported in this document. Two goals were established for the project. The first was to develop competency specifications and prototype training materials for the school based teacher educator. The second goal…