Considered a successful university-operated, urban middle school serving an overwhelmingly African American student body, "Charter" Middle School was dechartered suddenly, then merged a year later with students from a neighborhood school to become "Choice" Middle School, a school of choice in the urban district. Using a situated learning framework…

This paper reviews the research literature on new teacher mentoring, focusing on issues of definition, why teachers quit, and the effects of mentoring on retention. Conclusions call for more scientific studies on the relationship between mentoring and retention, more research on the relation between mentoring and other educational outcomes, and a…

In this study, we followed three faculty members' experiences with designing and teaching online courses for the first time. In order to complete the activity, the faculty members had to work collaboratively with others across the university. Activity theory provided a framework within which to study faculty members' collaborative activities with…

This article presents a reflexive look at a year-long mentoring experience between a university researcher and two third-grade teachers in a lower socioeconomic school. The challenges and rewards of mentoring the teachers in areas of their choice--writing workshop, constructivism, interactive learning methods, and management of cooperative…

Eight faculty members from five different campuses across the state of Wisconsin collaboratively taught a seminar course in early childhood special education through distance education technologies. A description of the course development and implementation is provided followed by summaries of the qualitative and quantitative analyses of student…

This study compared the perspectives of foreign and Japanese instructors regarding the impact of the former on lesson content and student learning. Participants consisted of 208 Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) and 96 Japanese Language Teachers (JLT) working together through the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. Path models constructed…

Program Improvement (PI) and School Assistance and Intervention Teams (SAIT) programs place rigorous, narrowly defined requirements upon monitored schools and districts, with corrective actions typically written as both school-level and district-level interventions. The requirements, known as the Essential Program Components, aim to enable schools…

For six years, teachers in a study group at a Denver inner-city middle school have enjoyed intellectual stimulation, collegiality, and professional growth. In this article, the authors present the success of the endeavor as proof that teachers are more than happy to stretch themselves when they are given the opportunity to direct their own…

Using Cambourne's model of Natural Learning and Literacy Acquisition (1985), this paper examines one staff's professional development as they are immersed in literacy learning. This year-long qualitative study examined the changes in teachers' understanding of literacy concepts, as well as factors that contributed to or inhibited these changes.…

Critical Friends Groups (CFGs) are vehicles for creating collective intentionality that reaches a shared end: increased opportunity for the disadvantaged to create equality of opportunity. Not that participating in CFGs is the only action educators can take to create moral schools; rather, moral schools reflect the beliefs, ends, and practices…

This paper focuses on collaboration between native-speaking English teachers (NETs) and local English teachers (LETs) in Hong Kong secondary schools. It examines some of the strengths and weaknesses of NETs and LETs documented in the international literature. It reviews, in various contexts, schemes where team teaching has been carried out. Using…

When schools and teachers come together voluntarily to collaborate in learning communities there can be powerful and positive benefits to pupils' experiences of learning and their wider lives. This article summarises some of the learning from the four-year Networked Learning Communities programme, managed by the National College for School…

Music teachers around the country are dealing with an exponential increase in the number of students with disabilities in their classrooms and ensembles. Teachers often do this without any training, support, or specialized information about how best to educate these children. They do their best to include all children in their music classes, but…

Layers and layers of curricula stuffed into vinyl binders were the norm in this Texas district until teachers sat down with scissors and glue to create a vertically aligned curriculum. They then created standards-based lessons to support the curriculum and put them into a database readily accessible by all.

In this article the author, discusses how the National Writing Project (NWP) prepares participating teachers for leadership roles by demonstrating their most effective classroom practices, studying research, and improving their knowledge of writing by becoming writers themselves. NWP prepares teachers to articulate and interrogate their practice…