This review of research on instructional improvement and teacher evaluation considers the complex issues affecting the K-8 principal's ability to enhance educational quality through effective supervision of the instructional process. According to several studies, teachers found formal evaluations far less valuable than direct assistance and…

A national project in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) to facilitate and coordinate institutional research efforts and the research activities at individual universities is described. A proposal for a comprehensive research project on higher education in RSA is included. One project at the University of the Orange Free State (UOFS) is designed…

This article reflects one session of a course in thinking and communicating for Pace University (New York) faculty. The purpose of the course was to heighten awareness that language can seriously misrepresent events which it describes, thus affecting students' ability to perceive, evaluate, and make day-to-day decisions. Beginning with a concrete…

Two of the most important functions that take place in school districts are staff development and staff evaluation. The relationship between these two functions, however, is more than two separate entities with some common administrative activities. Although it is conceivable that one of these functions is driven or motivated by the other, a…

The Teacher Plus Program (TPP) currently used in the Frederick County (Maryland) Public Schools shares some characteristics with a system for rewarding excellence in teachers that was originally proposed by Myron Lieberman and has since been championed by Albert Shanker. Lieberman's proposal called for the creation of national educational…

The report presents findings from a study of factors influencing the training offered in special education preservice teacher training programs. In-depth, focused interviews solicited information on 11 areas: descriptions of departments, students, and faculty; training priorities, department priorities, interaction with State Departments of…

This paper reports on work done as a part of a broader case study on conditions influencing staff development in an elementary school setting. It found that although teachers universally emphasized the importance of peer interaction in their development, their descriptions of the actual interactions in which they took part were modest in scope.…

The role of part-time faculty in the community college is discussed in this paper along with ways of improving their performance and morale. Introductory material outlines the advantages of employing part-time teachers (e.g., low cost, high motivation, and fewer commitments), and specifies some of their particular needs (e.g., stability, provision…

The emphasis in community colleges on teaching as a primary faculty responsibility has frequently caused classroom teaching to be divorced from scholarship. Although the teaching role is not a necessary condition for successful scholarship, some form of scholarship appears to be a necessary condition for successful teaching over an extended period…

Preparing students for transfer to four-year colleges remains a significant part of the mission of most community college mathematicians. For some 30 years, calculus has been synonymous with entry-level college mathematics. Recent educational and technological changes, however, demand that the definition of college-level work in mathematics be…

For the new two-year college instructor, gaining information that specifically addresses his/her problems and concerns, and establishing the network to generate the flow of quality information can be a problem. How the instructor deals with this problem is a function of his/her stage of growth. In the neophyte stage, the new faculty member is…

It is the theme of this paper that educators must effect the restructuring and reforms necessary to adapt their school systems to current technological and social conditions. The report states that educators must examine the current structure of the schools with a view toward streamlining and moving the decision-making process closer to where the…

Teachers who are trained in Consistency Management and who use its principles in the classroom can facilitate improvement in student academic achievement. The Consistency Management Program, consisting of school and classroom management strategies integrated with instructional methods, seems to provide the conditions for learning to occur. Five…

The goal of this practicum was to increase school-based interventions for children of divorce in an elementary school. The school psychologist implemented two faculty workshops with 13 faculty members attending the first and 7 attending the second workshop, and 6-week developmental groups for grades one and two, three and four, and five and six,…

Confronted by a maturing staff, lower teacher turnover rates, declining enrollments, and more sophisticated instructional methods, the Bloomfield (New Jersey) Public School District adopted an ambitious staff development initiative in 1983. This paper describes the planning and implementation strategies used to launch Bloomfield's Teaching…