The report presents data and discussion on U.S. education across sectors, as well as the work of the Office of Education (OE). Among topics covered are the education budget; OE reorganization; educational priorities, including basic skills, binding school to work, higher education, education of the handicapped; legislation, including the 1978…

This study compared the preparedness of middle school teachers graduating from either traditional teacher education or professional development school (PDS) programs. Surveys and interviews with graduates and enrollees of both programs indicated that PDS graduates felt better prepared for middle level teaching in terms of knowledge about early…

Discusses J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College's (JSRCC) improvement of teacher education by developing courses that reflect national mathematics and science standards, providing "preteaching" experiences and in-service courses for current teachers, actively recruiting students for the teaching profession, forming preteaching student…

The strategic planning process developed at Hartwick College (New York) begun in 1992 is described, and the college's resulting commitment to information technology is discussed. Issues arising during the process included choice of operating system(s), winning over skeptics, software selection, development of technical support, establishment of a…

The purpose of this article is to describe how a collaborative partnership between a public school teacher and university teacher-educator positively influenced their thinking about effective literacy practices in schools. The collaboration began when the two attended a state initiative summer literacy project. During the workshop they engaged in…

We have been exploring the potential of a web-supported professional development system, the Inquiry Learning Forum (ILF), that integrates videotaped classrooms and discussion forums for use in preservice science methods classrooms. This article examines pre- and inservice teachers' perceptions about using the ILF and how their participation in…

New software tools for data analysis provide rich opportunities for representing and understanding data. However, little research has been done on how learners use these tools to think about data, nor how that affects teaching. This paper describes several ways that learners use new software tools to deal with variability in analyzing data,…

This article captures how a web-based course, designed as a part of the School Leadership Grant Program, meets some challenges of leadership training and development. The content, structure and discussion board exercises of the sample course are designed to provide more reflective and practical opportunities for leader-learners to develop…

This article explores the theoretical foundations and practical application of Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning (TIEL), a pedagogical model that codifies a powerful way of thinking about the intellectual and social-emotional processes that underlie teaching and learning. It is is organized in three sections, and begins by offering…

This article addresses how teacher preparation programs can best respond to the broad, complex calls for reform in ways that are locally meaningful and honor academic integrity, but that are also true to the intent of the reform mandates. The authors begin with an overview of some of the federal and state initiatives that are presenting challenges…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits and challenges of using a virtual learning community (VLC) as a vehicle for workforce development. This paper argues that VLCs provide a flexible vehicle for workforce development. However, workplace realities may lead to unexpected challenges for participants wanting exploit the…

Reflection and professional development are two key practices that characterize an effective teacher and that are frequently overlooked in preservice training (Bowles, 2003; Halen-Faber, 1997; Patrick & Reinhartz, 1999). Reflection can be defined as the type of thinking that serves to challenge notions of prior learning (Halen-Faber, 1997), and…

The English "Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage" refers to the importance of supporting the development of young children's thinking, a teaching role that Kite suggests should be seen as the major focus for education. This paper draws on data from the Froebel Research Fellowship Project, "Ownership and Autonomy in Early…

A report recently released by the Center on Education Policy reveals that the four-year-old No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has indeed served to shine a light on the importance of professional development for K-12 educators. Beyond that basic fact, though, any real broad-based impact on the training of educators remains inconclusive. While the…

This report examines the types of professional development necessary to implement successful online learning initiatives. The potential for schools utilizing online learning is tremendous: schools can develop new distribution methods to enable equity and access for all students, they can provide high quality content for all students and they can…