An alarming trend of low performance and legal problems dogged the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) in the early and mid-1990s. In 1997, the Maryland State Legislature adopted a law creating a partnership between the sate, city and BCPSS, creating a new Board of Commissioners to run the school district. Under this leadership, serious…

The 2004 National Education Technology Plan paints a hopeful picture of technology in American schools, highlighting examples of effective use and applauding the innovation that is occurring. The plan touts the benefits of the Internet and the opportunities it offers for improving education, such as enhanced access to interactive learning…

The research on effective professional development is consistent across many studies. Researchers Willis Hawley and Linda Valli (Westchester Institute for Human Services Research, n.d.), in their synthesis of the professional development literature, find that high-quality teacher development is as follows: (1) Informed by research on teaching and…

Houston, Texas, was one of the cities awarded a grant via the Annenberg funds to implement school reforms. It developed the Houston Annenberg Challenge with local collaborators to initiate and nurture systemic change, thus improving education. A research and evaluation study investigated how funded schools implemented the reform initiative, what…

This book provides school administrators, teachers, and parents with the basic knowledge necessary for planning and implementing effective two-way bilingual programs. It offers essential elements to help students gain literacy in two languages, increase cross-cultural understanding, and meet high levels of achievement in all core academic areas.…

This report examines the impact of teacher quality on student achievement in Canada, analyzing current research, practices, and innovations to provide a better understanding of the complexity of teaching and effective teacher deployment. The nine chapters focus on: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "Indicators of Teacher Quality" (defining teacher quality…

This education plan sets out a vision for instruction and school development so that Chicago Public Schools, Illinois, can become the premier urban school district in the United States. It represents a year of planning and program development in the areas of human capital, professional development, the Chicago Reading Initiative, the redesign of…

As part of a national Middle Start initiative led by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), Mid South Middle Start is committed to working with high-poverty schools in the Mid South Delta region to build their capacity to foster students' academic excellence, support the development of young adolescents, and achieve social equity in…

Choosing Higher Options in Community Education (CHOICE) Alternative School is devoted to professional development. This report documents the need for and planning of sustained and supported professional development for 4 staff members at the CHOICE Alternative School in Jamestown, New York. There was no focused plan or vision for staff development…

Following an introduction (Hudson, Maslin-Prothero, Oates), the following 31 case studies describe flexible learning developments in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States: "Teaching Business Writing Online" (Fulkerth); "Don't Lecture Me about Flexible Learning!" (Dunning); "Improving Independent Learning…

In 1992, a study at the University of Melbourne (Australia) investigated the experiences of 1,108 freshman students in the schools of arts, economics, and commerce. Based on the results, areas for improvement in curriculum design and faculty development were identified. The three faculties were then invited to develop teaching and curriculum…

Laney's Success Model for First-Year Students attempts to increase retention by accommodating students and encouraging learning. It requires an institutional commitment for student academic success and tries to dispel the forces of attrition: academic boredom, difficulty adjusting to college life, and academic underpreparedness. The first-year…

The number of part-time faculty employed in two-year colleges has risen dramatically in recent years, with current data indicating that 64% of two-year college faculty work part time. It is critical, therefore, that colleges ensure that part-time faculty are well integrated into the organizational culture. In assessing initiatives for helping…

In 2000, the National Education Goals Panel examined the conditions that help ensure school success, conducting a series of four field hearings nationwide to find evidence of success and to understand why schools were succeeding. Participants at the hearings included students, teachers, parents, principals, superintendents, university presidents,…

In 2001, the Pennsylvania Department of Education contracted with Western Michigan University to evaluate Pennsylvania's charter schools and charter school initiative over two years. The study used site visits, work sample review, document review, focus groups, portfolios and surveys to gather data regarding the movement's effectiveness, progress,…