The professional development school is an effort to invent an institutional coalition that will bring together universities, schools of education, and public schools. This report urges the creation of a relatively small number of schools as professional development schools (PDS), designed to be the focus of professional preparation, school…

The quality of a two-year college's physics program is determined in part by the quality of preparation and the overall workload of its teachers, along with the provision for adequate budgets, facilities, and support services. The guidelines presented in this booklet were prepared by a task force of the American Association of Physics Teachers…

Issues are discussed and recommendations are offered to policymakers on the preparation of practitioners to work with infants, toddlers, and their families. Section I examines eforts to define "competence" for practitioners and programs. Section II describes in detail four key elements of training for infant/family practitioners, illustrating how…

A review of recent literature and commission reports identifies persistent problems in two areas of educational administration: research and preparation programs. The two problems are linked in that they are often supervised by faculty who direct but do not themselves perform research. Two areas of research needs are the poor research skills of…

A reflective coaching program was implemented to improve the professional work culture of a school district with morale problems because of labor disputes and strikes. An underlying principle of the program emphasized the role of teachers as the key instructional decision-makers for the classroom. The guiding principle for the teacher-coach…

This study investigated two questions concerning the empowerment of teachers: (1) What meanings do teachers associate with the social practices and social knowledge that inform the social actions of teacher empowerment? and (2) What kinds of events seem to account for, or explicate, the accomplishment of teacher empowerment? Participants in the…

The Individualized Professional Development Process (IPDP) was developed for the Brookfield, Connecticut school district by a private consultant. Participation in IPDP is voluntary in Brookfield. However, once selected as a participant, a staff member goes through a professional development process. The individual, along with his immediate…

Six policy issues emerging from a Midwest dissemination conference on the Richardson Study are highlighted. The focus is on facilitating policy initiatives in gifted education among local and state school districts. Policy statements on each of the following issues are cited: improving identification procedures; articulating goals, programs, and…

A project was undertaken to assess the staff development needs of faculty and staff at Mission College (California), and to formulate a 1-year staff development plan tied to budget allocations for such activities. In spring 1986, a needs assessment survey for staff development was administered to 62 classified staff members, 87 faculty members, 4…

The Ways to Improve Schools and Education Project (WISE) seeks to enhance school staff knowledge and skills through appropriate staff development adapted from local business and industry. Project WISE FY84 is an outgrowth of project accomplishments in FY83, which included a pilot test of collaborative school-business partnerships at three sites.…

A design for individualizing in-service training for teachers of English as a second language and cultural orientation for refugees to meet the needs of instructors with different backgrounds and degrees of experience is presented. The teachers and their supervisors identify each others' needs and interests, state learning objectives to be…

As a first step in developing a comprehensive professional development program and operational activities at Gateway Technical Institute (GTI) in Wisconsin, a faculty and staff computer training survey was conducted. A questionnaire was distributed to 411 faculty and staff members to establish a general interest level; gauge the current level of…

This report is one in a series on the work of the 30 pilot projects that form the European Community's second Programme on the Transition from Education to Adult and Working Life. The report analyzes the work of the pilot projects in the field of inservice teacher training. It lists the new demands on teachers, as the pilot projects identified…

In the summer of 1986, representatives from Southern Oregon State College, the Northwest Regional Laboratory, and the Josephine County School District formed a consortium to design an induction program for beginning rural teachers. During its first year, the consortium presented special on-site graduate credit courses addressing problems new…

To improve learning and the work lives of teachers, in 1985 Massachusetts enacted Chapter 188, the Public School Improvement Act, which establishes and implements a system for testing and evaluating school and student performance. Since Chapter 188 was implemented, Massachusetts schools have improved faster than the national rate. Proposals for…