The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), in collaboration with the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), and the Association for the Gifted (CEC-TAG), has developed national standards for teacher preparation programs in gifted and talented education. Typically, these programs are at the masters level, but they may also be endorsement…

As college and workplace success becomes increasingly dependent on reading, parents and educators have become more interested in how to engage students in reading. Teachers at a rural Georgia high school have reported that students are reluctant to engage in academic reading. Guided by previous research on the factors that promote or discourage…

The federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) program, to which $3 billion were allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), supports schools attempting to turn around a history of low performance. School turnaround also is a focus of Race to the Top (RTT), another ARRA-supported initiative, which involved a roughly $4…

This qualitative study is written from a phenomenological standpoint using Van Manen's (1990 ) hermeneutic lived experiences of the participants. Fourth grade teachers from a large urban school district in the southwestern U.S. completed an online questionnaire and participated in a focus group interview to provide insight into their attitudes and…

Paraprofessionals are widely employed in response to intervention (RTI) settings to provide instruction to students at-risk for reading disabilities. However, little research has addressed effective and efficient ways to train these paraprofessionals to deliver instruction with high fidelity. In addition, given the limited time and finances…

The purpose of this case study was to examine the change in perceptions of instructional staff in regards to five dimensions as it proceeded in establishing a professional learning community. The researcher utilized focused interview sessions, group interview questionnaires, and Huffman and Hipp's Professional Learning Survey to determine how the…

This investigation examined interactions in three classrooms to determine how they influenced Discourses related to mathematics learning and teaching. Mathematics education literature suggests that effective mathematics instruction includes mathematical Discourses. However, effective mathematical Discourses within mathematics classrooms vary…

A recent report published by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) presents findings from the second-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program, a statewide educator incentive program that operated in Texas. As part of this larger study, evaluators administered a survey to educators to learn about their…

Continuing professional development (CPD) is increasingly seen as an essential driver in raising the standards of teaching and learning in post-16 education and training. Requirements and processes have been set in place by Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) and Institute for Learning (IfL) to ensure that every teacher engages in CPD--but is it getting…

To move toward educational excellence leaders, teachers, and district administrators must be strategic in planning for instructional success. As this planning takes place, I believe that the concept of "Professional Learning Communities" (PLC) should occupy a large space in a school strategic plan for success. Strategic planning should be viewed…

For many professional educators, effective professional development must be at the center of any educational reform (Dilworth & Imig, 1995). Moreover, while many studies have provided documentation describing effective models of professional development, currently very few school districts are using these models. The purpose of this study was to…

While efforts have been made in the last two decades to educate professionals about the nature of assistive technology (AT) devices, successful implementation of technology is impossible without the support and provision of appropriate AT services. The current investigation, designed and conducted by the National Assistive Technology Research…

It would be difficult to imagine any first-year teacher had aspirations of becoming a weak teacher. Most individuals hired as teachers have the ability to do a good job and want to do a good job. So how is it that some become ineffective? The authors contend that school leaders make them that way. Consider this preposterous notion: School leaders…

Objective: Education is becoming a recognized career path in psychiatry. Yet, there are few published accounts of how to create sustainable structures within departments to support this academic focus. The authors document the creation and 5-year progress of the Research Innovation and Scholarship in Education (RISE) program at the largest…

A peripatetic is one who journeys hither and thither. Many people can claim that title by just describing a domestic day. In the context of the Mid-Western Educational Research Association (MWERA) conference theme, the globalization of the teacher education experience, the author defines a peripatetic as one who journeys hither and thither…