This book demonstrates how high achievement can exist in high-poverty, high-minority schools. By drawing on the best practices of 13 exemplary schools, the book highlights the specific means by which ethnically diverse (namely, African American and Latino) students can attain educational success. The book offers seven strategies for principals to…

This book provides information to help teachers use the Internet in the classroom. Tips from 28 educators note potential pitfalls and offer many perspectives on teaching with the Internet. The educators present their own classroom materials, lesson plans, Web sites, and words of wisdom. Interviews with renowned experts in the field address key…

This report presents the case-study findings from a cross-state investigation focused on Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, intended to deepen understanding around the influence of high stakes accountability on teacher learning and the capacity of districts and schools to support instructional practices…

Nine San Francisco (California) second-year teachers who had conducted structured weekly meetings during their preservice program continue to meet monthly with two Stanford University researchers. At these meetings they discuss emerging values, philosophies, and pedagogical practice. The meetings involve formal check-in times for individuals to…

This paper examines a Midwestern site of the National Writing Project for teachers, a professional development summer institute that fosters collaborative learning, increases teacher confidence and enthusiasm, and promotes reflection. The examination involves observations of and interviews with 19 Midwestern Writing Project (MWP) participants and…

This report describes Project CREEK (Community Resources Through Environmental Education for Kids), a collaborative 3-year project between the University of California at Davis, the University of Maryland, and a large, rural K-5 elementary school in central California, and a sister site near Baltimore. Specifically, this report examines changes in…

This study examines the role of dialogue and collaborative reflection in guiding teachers' identification of issues and contextual barriers in their practice. It analyzes teachers' social interactions and academic self-efficacy during the dialogic process and evaluates the quality of inquiry that teachers proposed to change their practice.…

This study investigated how four teacher educators, who were collaborating with school-based partners to reconceptualize the portion of the teacher education curriculum traditionally delivered in the university methods courses, approached course reconceptualization. Data from interviews with the teacher educators highlighted four themes: learning…

This paper uses the case study method to describe the characteristics of Japanese school-based inservice teacher training programs, which are designed to help teachers improve their competence and the quality of their teaching activities. Data come from observations of and interviews with teachers in classrooms within 10 public elementary schools.…

This document describes a case study of seven community colleges that used curriculum and pedagogy to integrate academic and occupational education. Integration is accomplished by linking or clustering courses, infusing academic instruction into occupational education or vice versa, or adding components such as authentic assessment, career…

This report discusses the activities and outcomes of an applied dissertation designed to improve gifted middle school students' participation in Quest class activities and academic achievement in Quest class. Students in the target group (n=36) were not achieving at expected levels academically, were not completing in-class assignments or homework…

This book demonstrates how classroom teachers can use cooperative learning techniques for lesson planning and classroom management. It emphasizes that cooperation among students is powerful, and it notes that just because students are in a group does not mean that they are cooperating. Part 1, "Getting Started with Cooperative Learning," includes…

Two graduate teaching assistants (TAs)--one taught language arts methods and the other taught social studies methods--who were office mates at a large university in Florida formulated a plan to create one end-of-course project that would both satisfy requirements and combine the social studies and language arts. That way, students could see that…

This proceedings contains 57 presentations and presentation summaries concerned with rural special education. The papers are arranged in 11 sections: impacting governmental policy, at risk, collaborative education models, early childhood education, gifted, multicultural, parents and families, preservice and inservice teacher education, technology,…

This paper presents one educator's experiences at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, in leading teacher education reform from 1990-1996. It is written from her perspective as the head of a school of teacher education. The school is primarily concerned with preparing elementary educators, with smaller programs for secondary educators…