This paper describes the three types of nonformal and informal professional development provided by teachers' organizations. The first type is a minimal approach, the second focuses on contextual variation and teacher diversity, and the third consists of informal learning opportunities developed by teachers themselves. The article identifies…

This guide answers three basic questions on how to develop a professional community of learners: (1) What type of polices, structures, and procedures will help staff to connect with and learn from one another? (2) What incentives help schools to undertake community-wide learning? and (3) How can schools transform themselves into professional…

Comprehensive guidance programs are effective in assisting children and young people, along with their parents, to respond to the challenges of life and school. When a strong, comprehensive guidance program is in place, good things happen, such as improvements in academic achievement, students taking more demanding courses, students developing and…

Recent movements within school counseling have sought to define the duties of school counselors. A study of regional Southern California schools, which have the highest student to counselor ratios in the nation, reveals that the predominate barrier to development of comprehensive, results-based counseling programs has been cognitive rather than…

This report provides an overview of the state credentialing requirements needed for professional school counselors in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The requirements outlined are those necessary to obtain an initial entry-level credential. The overview of state credentialing requirements provides educational, experience, and…

Intended for use by teams of educators to spark discussion about current practices and how well their own approaches match identified best practices, this poster suggests nine effective literacy practices associated with improved student performance in the early grades. The nine practices are from a study of elementary schools with higher than…

In the context of studies of retaining minority and women students in engineering, this study explored how students perceived that they learned best, how they interacted with other students and faculty, and how students interacted differently during class and between classes in pursuing their engineering studies. The sample was 515 undergraduate…

Success by Eight is a pilot program of the Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools for students in kindergarten through grade 2. The initiative is designed to provide a group of six pilot schools with training and additional resources in implementing a specific set of components to prepare students for the third grade. These components are: (1)…

This resource book describes a wide variety of programs designed to help at-risk students. The following chapters are included: (1) "Introduction and Background"; (2) "Program, Instructional, and Curricular Initiatives"; (3) "Comprehensive School-Improvement Initiatives"; (4) "Teacher Training and Professional Development Initiatives"; (5)…

By building upon earlier studies of District 2 (Elmore and Burney, 1996, 1997) which have focused on the ways in which members of the district leadership community interact and learn from one another, this paper investigates the ways in which teachers think about, implement, and learn new instructional practices in District 2 classrooms. The paper…

This final report documents the activities and outcomes of the 3-year outreach project AHEAD (At Home & At Day Care). Over the course of the three years, AHEAD Outreach conducted eight AHEAD Trainers' Training Institutes that provided AHEAD trainers with up-to-date content in the early intervention field, training techniques, hands-on experiences,…

The Teacher Professional Development Institute employs Internet technology to support distributed professional learning communities. The Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will soon employ a similar model in its program. Work and learning within STEP evolves around instructional design teams…

This document outlines the Western Assessment Collaborative's (WAC) approach to evaluation and the design for examining the progress and impact of Kyosei (spirit of cooperation), a multiyear partnership with 10 schools and 4 districts that engages participants in a set of integrated, research-based professional development strategies. The text…

This Digest states that the integration of research into counseling through an evidence-based approach actually brings the best elements of practice, clinical experience, and reliable treatment protocols together to serve the task of helping clients with the complex problems they bring to counseling. It gives several broad implications for the…

This guide was developed to help career guidance counselors and administrators improve their programs by adapting the best practices from exemplars and other models and by using standards suggested by national groups. The guide includes the guidance and counseling framework that the National Center for Research in Vocational Education uses for…