The Inland Empire Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program (IE-BTSA) is in its third year of funded development and implementation of assessment strategies designed to guide support of beginning teachers. The IE-BTSA program is grounded in a cognitive and developmental model of how beginning teachers move along the continuum from novice…

This paper presents findings of a study that compared the school environment in Australian Catholic and government schools. A total of 208 teachers from 32 Queensland secondary schools completed the "Catholic School Environment Questionnaire." The sample included 80 teachers of religion at the Catholic nonorder (coeducational) and the…

Aiming to provide a coherent and useful guide to practitioners, this paper presents highlights of discussions held at a seminar that focused on how to create powerful reading programs for all of California's students. The paper also provides an extensive summary of key findings of research, a description of effective classroom and school…

Planned educational change tends to be imposed from the top down and increases the requirements for local reporting. This paper reports on the effects of a curriculum-planning workshop on teachers' instructional practices. Eight teachers at a Catholic college in rural Western Australia participated in a curriculum-planning workshop to learn how to…

This digest examines the emerging profession of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to adults who live and work in the United States, offering suggestions for beginning a career in this field and continuing to grow professionally. The fundamental duty of an ESL teacher is to facilitate development of communication skills in English, in…

The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) has made it possible to develop comprehensive profiles of the nation's public and private schools and teachers and principals and to study issues of teacher supply and demand. The planned switch to a 5-year cycle of data collection provides a good time to re-examine the survey's design. This paper focuses on…

This paper chronicles the preparation, describes the course content, and details the evaluation of a course designed to train police officers in interpersonal communication. Training was done in two-hour sessions for a police department that was implementing the philosophies and activities of community policing. The paper discusses the needs…

This book details the characteristics of schools that continue to provide their students with a good education. It integrates two important bodies of research in its findings: (1) the research on effective schools and the characteristics of effective schools; and (2) studies of effective business practices and the leadership behind those…

This study explores the nature and meaning of various epistemological and affective issues that shape elementary teachers' work, such as ways of knowing, beliefs about the nature of science, values, emotions, and teachers' images of themselves as knowers. Through analyses of two teachers' narratives, classroom observations, and instructional…

This guide is a collection of ideas for mathematics activities which were assembled and tested by primary teachers. The activities supplement the teaching of basic numeracy and include topics such as algorithms, pyramids, magic squares, multiples, and number values. The guide is organized into four sections: (1) addition and subtraction; (2)…

This guide is linked to a science curriculum and was designed for use by those involved with early childhood education. The goal of this document is to enable caregivers and teachers to use the curriculum in a more varied, stimulating, and developmentally appropriate way. Topics discussed include student attitudes toward mathematics, parent…

This guide presents portfolio criteria and a corollary assessment instrument for physical therapy students enrolled in the Nova Southeastern University Physical Therapy Program. The paper begins by listing the program's desired outcomes for its graduates, the definition of physical therapy, the components of a portfolio, and providing a glossary…

Traditional supervision of teachers in American schools is often mislabeled. In practice, it is more an exercise in administrative monitoring and evaluation instead of a method to help teachers grow and improve professionally. Clinical supervision, developed as an alternative to traditional supervisory methods, focuses on the non-evaluative use of…

As school-to-work systems evolve across the nation, teachers will assume a variety of new roles and responsibilities. The collaborative nature of school-to-work requires greater interaction between teachers and other partners in schools and the community. Innovative approaches to learning in school-to-work systems, such as project-based…

This report presents data on the demographic and employment characteristics of the nation's doctoral scientists and engineers. Data were developed as part of the Longitudinal Doctorate Project. Current information on the supply and utilization of doctoral personnel in science and engineering reflects the results of the 1997 Survey of Doctorate…