This collection of papers focuses on the preparation of teachers by university-based education programs. The papers are: "The STEPS That Support P-12 Learning and Achievement" (Diana Rigden), which describes the Standards-based Teacher Education Project (STEP) for improving student learning; "The Responsibility for Assessing Beginning Teachers"…

This Spring 2002 issue of the occasional paper, CSR Connection, reports on information that builds the capacity of schools to raise the academic achievement of all students. The success of English language learners and Native American students in U.S. public schools has been, and continues to be, impeded by deep "disconnects" between schools and…

This brief is designed to promote collaborative leadership in the work of transforming low performing urban schools into successful schools. The brief is organized into several topics, which include framing the challenge (concentrated disadvantage, concentration effects, and savage inequalities); encouraging educators and partners to promote the…

This publication is designed to help local administrators and teachers achieve the fundamental goal of the No Child Left Behind Act, that is, improved learning for all students. For administrators, it furnishes information useful for understanding the key issues that must be dealt with at the district, school, and classroom levels; provides a view…

The core work of educational administration is school improvement, especially improved school outcomes. The leader must know what to do, why some interventions work better than others, and how to implement them. Longitudinal experimental research, meta-analyses, and evaluations have definitely shown that small classes, at least in K-3, provide an…

This book explores the embodied narrative knowledge that educators hold and express in context and call forth in situations. It is about teachers and principals living and telling and reliving and retelling stories intuitively developed around metaphors borrowed from classical literature, music, drama, mythology, and children's literature to…

This paper discusses the concept of performance-based pay, or merit pay, for teachers as a way to encourage better teaching. It begins with a general discussion of the issue of performance-based pay, which on the surface seems simple, but in practice is very complex. It continues with a discussion of whether the achievement to be assessed is based…

This book describes how administrators, teachers, and students in three high schools have worked to improve their schools. The schools; a suburban vocational-technical school, an urban school for immigrant English-language learners, and an urban second-chance school for students who have failed elsewhere. All operate as, what the books calls,…

Systemic change in education refers to many facets of a community working together to support and improve how well children learn. This study examines the perceptions of teachers involved in systemic change as math and science resource teachers. In Duval County, Florida, a group of teachers were hired to assist systemic change as part of a 5-year…

This 1999 annual report of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) is introduced by letters from its chairman and its president. The report then goes on to provide brief descriptions of various initiatives undertaken by the Board: the Electronic Campus program; the Doctoral Scholars program; Educational Benchmarks 2000, a report on member…

This paper focuses on standards-based teacher licensure in Alaska. Section 1, "Introduction," examines the history of schooling in the United States, noting different periods of reform. Section 2, "School Reform Since 'A Nation at Risk,'" discusses how that report shifted the focus for reform. Section 3, "Education…

These four newsletter issues provide information on current research and practice to early childhood professionals teaching in the primary grades in Colorado, focusing on education reform and developmentally appropriate practice. The first issue notes research supporting developmentally appropriate practice, describes Kentucky's primary school…

This publication shares highlights from the Eisenhower Professional Development Evaluation Conference, also introducing the upcoming Improving America's Schools (IAS) Conferences. The Eisenhower conference focused on improving content knowledge and instructional practice through effective professional development. The IAS conference will examine…

This publication synthesizes recent research about standards-based education. It is intended to inform efforts to improve low-performing schools and create or sustain standards- based, high-performing learning communities. The five chapters are: (1) "Literacy for All Children" (aspects of literacy, reading, writing, and exemplary literacy teachers…

Every month in every neighborhood in Chicago, residents, teachers, school principals, and police officers gather to deliberate about how to improve their schools and make their streets safer. Residents of poor neighborhoods participate as much or more as those from wealthy ones. All voices are heard. Since the meetings began more than a dozen…