To date, the professional development school (PDS) preservice teacher preparation literature base is long on attitudinal analysis and short on comparative analysis of outcome variables. This article reports on a 2-year study comparing the lesson planning, teaching effectiveness, postlesson reflectivity, and content retention of professional…

The author leads a program that teaches teachers in a public university, most of whom work in struggling urban schools serving students from predominantly poor and minority backgrounds. The courses in her program share a common purpose: to develop understandings about the active nature of children's learning and to use these understandings to…

The study reported uses a qualitative design to investigate the benefits of service-learning through the eyes of the preservice teachers who participated in it. The study focuses on how preservice teachers compare and contrast teaching and learning in the formal classroom during student teaching and teaching and learning in service-learning. Based…

The Redwood City (Calif.) School District, which comprises a diverse student population, has implemented a major professional development model for principals in order to enhance student achievement at all school sites. The model has three key components: (1) restructuring principal meetings with a primary focus on ongoing professional…

This article is concerned with the continuing staff shortages in Australian long day care services. To expand possibilities for addressing this ongoing problem, the article advocates the use of discourse as a theoretical and practical tool for reframing discussions about staff shortages. Drawing on discourses of crisis and professionalism as…

This article provides a brief history of affirmative action in the United States. The author describes the impact of the "Brown v. Board of Education" on minority life science education. She also discusses how The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) Minorities Affairs Committee (MAC) can improve the minority science pipeline.…

An experienced mathematics teacher in a rural high school in the United States was studied as she first implemented a reform calculus curriculum. Her instruction was compared to her previous practice using a curriculum not constructed with the reform movement in mind. Despite her early attempts to make her instructions more student-centered, the…

Children's successful adjustment to child care involves effectively managing their separation from parents. Persistent problems with separation interfere with other relationships and with learning opportunities. The authors of this article developed a tool that caregivers can use to identify adjustment difficulties in young children who are …

Youth work is a field that has moved from a sole focus on the treatment of youth problems to their prevention, and more recently, the promotion of normal, healthy development. Concurrent with this trend to a more comprehensive approach to youth services (one that serves a continuum from promotion to prevention to short- and long-term treatment)…

Several years ago intermediaries in Boston were challenged to build a continuum of training around a shared set of competencies for those who work with young people ages five to twenty-two during the out-of-school-time hours. After receiving a few small planning grants, local intermediaries teamed up with large youth-serving organizations to…

In November 2000, the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis, Indiana, issued a request for grant proposals from public school districts in Marion County, Indiana. It called for school districts to develop innovative, systemic, and transforming approaches to preparing students to thrive in an increasingly competitive, high-tech, global society. The…

Purpose: This paper aims to describe a qualitative study of a four-year, state-wide portfolio evaluation system for new principals. The State of Ohio (USA) was one of five states that participated in a field test of the Portfolio Assessment for School Leaders designed by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) and the…

In this article, the author invites students to reflect on the characteristics of their own teachers. The author contends that this reflection can be a methodological process and model toward a better understanding of what identifies teachers as professionals. To "constructively reflect" on teacher professionalism, it is imperative that…

Maximum academic achievement for gifted and talented students can only be accomplished when teachers are given the tools, support, and training needed to strengthen instructional skills and develop knowledge of the social and emotional needs of the students they serve. Providing meaningful professional development to develop or enhance these…

Practice-based or experiential learning has come to be dominated by mentalist models of reflection on experience. The argument here is that these models split mind from body and subject from environment in ways that yield problematic practices. An alternate conception of practice-based learning is offered here, based on the notion of…