The purpose of this study was to have a better understanding of what rural superintendents are looking for in new first-year teachers, and to provide that information to future teaching candidates and colleges of education that are preparing teachers for the 21st Century classroom. Over the past twenty years, superintendents have not changed in…

The Critical Success Factors Report is the North Carolina Community College System's major accountability document. This annual performance report is based on data compiled from the previous year and serves to inform colleges and the public on the performance of North Carolina's 58 community colleges. In 1993, the State Board of Community Colleges…

This Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) 2012 monitoring report presents governing board outcomes and metrics. The following sections are included: (1) 2020 Completion Agenda Goal; (2) Outcome 1: University Transfer Education and General Education; (3) Outcome 2: Workforce and Economic Development; (4) Outcome 3: Developmental…

Preparing all teachers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) populations is essential in teacher education (Banks, Cochran-Smith, Moll, Richert, Zeichner, LePage, Darling-Hammond, Duffy, & MacDonald, 2005). Simultaneously, current literacy policy serves to dictate how teachers teach literacy; requiring specific curricula and…

In the state of Georgia, African Americans represent 38% of the student population, yet they account for more than half of the grade level retentions each year (The Governor's Office of Student Achievement, 2009). The purpose of this study was to determine if relationships exist between the disproportionate retention rate of African American…

Each year, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education publishes an online "school accountability report card" for each public school district, each building and each charter school. This document provides a statewide report card on key accountability measures about Missouri public schools, including information…

Current quantitative research on the effectiveness of the National Board certification has resulted in contradictory findings. Consequently, this meta-analysis synthesized the results of 12 studies on National Board Certification and student achievement. Of those, 9 studies were used to calculate effect sizes for reading, and all 12 were used to…

Most analyses of teacher quality end without any assessment of the economic value of altered teacher quality. This paper combines information about teacher effectiveness with the economic impact of higher achievement. It begins with an overview of what is known about the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement, which provides…

Over the past decade, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland has focused on improving teacher capacity as a strategy to address achievement gaps and promote "college-ready" standards in what has become an "urban suburb" with significant pockets of high-need students. As part of this focus on quality teaching, the…

This paper presents findings from five separate investigations undertaken as part of the Texas College and Career Readiness Initiative, a legislatively mandated program to increase the number of students attending and succeeding in college. It highlights activities designed to improve alignment between high school and college. These activities…

This paper investigates the effect of teacher quality, represented by teacher level characteristics, on mathematics gain scores employing multilevel (or three-level hierarchical linear model, HLM, based) unconditional and conditional value-added model (VAM). We found the significant effects of teacher's mathematics content certification, teacher…

The graduate of the Bricklayer apprenticeship training is a journeyperson who will be able to: (1) responsibly do all work tasks expected of a journeyperson; (2) supervise, train and coach apprentices; (3) produce a better quality product than the minimum acceptable by industry standard; (4) use and maintain tools and equipment to the standards of…

Recruitment and retention of qualified education personnel remains an ongoing challenge and all 50 states have reported teacher shortages for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years. Although there was some variation from state to state in terms of which types of personnel were most difficult to recruit and retain, a shortage of qualified special…

In an October 22, 2010, speech to teacher educators at Columbia University's Teachers College, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan proclaimed that revolutionary change in the education of teachers is essential if the problems facing U.S. society and U.S. schools are to be solved. Toward the end of his speech, he declared that a standardized…

Background: The quality of health education teachers is, in large part, dependent on the education they receive from their teacher preparation program. Purpose: This study assessed institutions of higher education (IHE) teaching practices in school health teacher preparation programs regarding the amount of time spent and content taught related to…