The Center for English as a Lingua Franca (CELF), an initiative of a private university in Tokyo, was founded with serious consideration given to the pedagogical implications of the widespread use of English as a lingua franca (ELF). Such deliberation is not yet prevalent among academics and practitioners who should be most affected by ELF…

Re-inventing continuing higher education is about finding ways to be a more central player in a region's civic, cultural, and economic life as well as in the education of individuals for work and citizenship. Continuing higher education will require data gathering, analytical tools, convening authority, interpretive skills, new models of delivery,…

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership works with U.S. manufacturers to help them create and retain jobs, increase profits, and save time and money. Members of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership recognized the need to expand capacity and capabilities of their network to address the…

How can districts bring instructional improvement to scale within and across schools? The authors of "Collaborative School Improvement" argue that districts can play a powerful part in helping schools build the capacity to engage in inquiry-based reform--but that this effort requires a shift in districts' traditional role as a professional…

The overall purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes and participation in professional development activities of key stakeholders as related to the change of position from an Instructional Support Teacher to an Instructional Coach. Specifically, this study aimed to provide a detailed and extensive review of the implementation process and…

The best way to raise achievement levels is to improve teaching; and that goal is most easily reached through a school-wide system that starts with strong, effective leadership and raises expectations for teachers and their students. Collaboration, shared goals, and the adoption of Professional Learning Communities is crucial, the author says; so…

It has become increasingly popular to say that individual teachers are the single most important factor affecting student achievement. This is hastily followed by pointing out the need to weed out "the ineffectives." Now this rallying cry is being used by educational consulting firms that position themselves as "partners in…

Julie Coiro is an assistant professor in the Reading Department at the University of Rhode Island. Her research focuses on adolescents' online reading comprehension development. She has served as co-editor of the "Handbook of Research in New Literacies" (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008), among many publications. In this interview, Coiro…

In the focus article of this issue, von Davier, Naemi, and Roberts essentially coupled: (1) a short methodological review of structural similarities of latent variable models with discrete and continuous latent variables; and (2) 2 short empirical case studies that show how these models can be applied to real, rather than simulated, large-scale…

Schools, districts, and state-level educational organizations are experiencing a great shift in the way they do the business of education. This shift focuses on accountability, specifically through the expectation of the effective utilization of evaluative-focused efforts to guide and support decisions about educational program implementation. In…

This article details the findings from a qualitative study that explored the ways individuals who work with early childhood education (ECE) practitioners in professional development settings influenced those practitioners' understandings of early childhood policy and early childhood systems. Defined as individuals who work in the professional…

When it comes to changing one's behavior, what makes a person ready to change? In this study, mentors participated in interviews and focus groups about early childhood educators' readiness to change their practices with children. One third of the educators were rated by their mentors as "not ready to change" as measured by the Stage of Change…

Sabbaticals have been identified as an important tool to help faculty remain current in their responsibilities. By having a dedicated break from traditional responsibilities, faculty members have self-reported rejuvenation and recommitment to their professional work. Institutional policies, however, are largely vague and lack measures to help…

This November, CTE professionals from all over the country will assemble in the beautiful state of Georgia for CareerTech VISION 2012. With the total redesign of this event, this opportunity will no doubt prove to be one of the greatest professional development opportunities ever offered by the Association for Career and Technical Education…

As a career and technical high school, Middle Bucks Institute of Technology in Jamison, Pennsylvania, has risen to the challenge of preparing students with 21st-century skills through rigorous academics, technical knowledge, and professional development. Everyone, from the administrative director to the classroom teacher, needs to understand their…