Providing teachers with data-driven feedback, aligned professional development and opportunities for advancement may help limit attrition, contribute to more effective teaching, and improve student learning. However, research shows that much of the professional development teachers currently receive does not improve either teacher or student…

Federal initiatives and other research have led states across the nation to sharpen their focus on teacher evaluation in recent years. In 2009 a seminal report, "The Widget Effect," from The New Teacher Project revealed that in districts using a binary rating system to evaluate teachers, less than 1 percent of teachers received an…

In 2012, WestEd received a "Development" grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) competition to develop and implement Internet-based Reading Apprenticeship Improving Science Education ("iRAISE"). "iRAISE" was implemented in Michigan and Pennsylvania and was provided to over 100…

From 2008 to 2010, project-based learning (PBL) was a major focus of the Teacher Leadership Institute (TLI), undertaken by the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE), as a method for teaching 21st century skills. Beginning in January 2011, a summative evaluation was conducted to investigate the effect of PBL implementation on teachers'…

Although Missouri has had a Career Ladder program for teachers since 1987, very little research has been carried out to measure the program's effects and what has been studied has not been comprehensive. This paper examines the program's effect on student achievement across the state, using longitudinal data on district math and reading scores for…

This report summarizes findings from a survey of 183 of the 314 elementary, middle, and high school educators that participated in the pilot year implementation of the Rhode Island Teacher Training Initiative (RITTI). All RITTI educators received 60 hours of training over a 2-week period focused on using a variety of software applications,…

This study examined professional development offered in South Carolina, how it was offered, support given to implement skills acquired from professional development, and how professional development enhanced academic goals outlined in district and school strategic plans. The paper describes characteristics of high quality professional development…

This report presents findings from the third and final year of the Reading First Impact Study (RFIS), a congressionally mandated evaluation of the federal government's initiative to help all children read at or above grade level by the end of third grade. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 established Reading First (RF) and mandated its…

The Pacific Communities with High-performance in Literacy Development (Pacific CHILD) Professional Development Model research project was initiated in response to an overwhelming need in PREL's Pacific service region for improvement of teachers' knowledge and instructional practices in early reading. This report examines the question of the…

The purpose of the three-year CCSSO study was to design, implement, and test the effectiveness of the Data on Enacted Curriculum (DEC) model for improving math and science instruction. The model was tested by measuring its effects with a randomly selected sample of ?treatment? schools at the middle grades level as compared to a control group of…

In 2000, researchers conducted surveys on teacher preparation and qualifications, measuring change since 1998. Respondents were 5,253 K-12 teachers nationwide. The survey repeated some indicators of teacher quality examined in 1998 and explored new issues. Virtually all teachers held bachelor's degrees, and nearly half held master's degrees.…

This indicator of the month summarizes data from the National Center for Education Statistics School and Staffing Survey, 1993-94 (Teacher Questionnaire) regarding teacher participation in professional development (including seminars offered by schools or school districts and courses affiliated with institutions of higher education). Some findings…

Presents data on the percent of full-time public school teachers indicating the extent to which participation in professional development activities in various content areas improved their classroom teaching, by number of hours spent in professional development in that content area in the last 12 months (1998). (SM)

In response to reduced state funding for faculty development in community colleges in Washington, the Faculty Association of Community Colleges and the State Board for Community College Education established a special committee in 1989 to make recommendations to enhance faculty development efforts at the 27 community colleges statewide. To…

This study investigated differences among professional staff members' commitment to continuous learning and improvement in high-performing schools differentiated by student academic performance and disaggregated by race and socioeconomic status. A total of 48 high-performing schools were identified by Kentucky Department of Education staff based…