This case study investigated how state and district reform policies affected the organization and administration of Title I schoolwide programs in Chicago's public schools, noting whether application of standards to all students contributed to increasing curricular and instructional integration. Results highlight increased teacher collaboration,…

Describes lesson study, a Japanese model for intensive, school-based professional development, noting that it is a change and improvement strategy appropriate for a cutural activity such as teaching, embodying many of the principles of effective professional development. The paper discusses: putting students at the center, developing professional…

Explores the extent of teacher inquiry and how professional development can promote schoolwide inquiry within seven urban elementary schools, highlighting the regular, systematic inquiry present in two schools and organizational contexts that facilitate inquiry. As a key element of professional community, the ways that inquiry contributes to other…

Maintains that interdisciplinary teaming in middle schools has not reached its full potential, with teams spending too much time on minor problems and housekeeping duties. Suggests ways to: improve the foundations of teaming; demonstrate greater discipline during team meetings; improve the team's ability to make decisions, solve problems, and…

Presents cooperative-statistics teaching ideas. Argues that the cooperative-teaching approach strengthens introductory statistics teachers' sense of professional community, minimizes the amount of additional time and resources required, and increases the quality of statistics education. Contains 11 references. (ASK)

Examined the dynamics of teacher leadership, using two teacher collegial groups as a small-group context. After discussing teacher leadership and teacher-mediation effects, describes data collection, which involved observations, interviews, surveys, and document mining. Results indicated that teacher-mediation effects did not counter teacher…

Details the planning and the specific assignments involved in teaching "Great Expectations" over a period of nine months. Explains how the novel was coordinated with other reading using the themes of Judgment, Influences, and Control. (NH)

Describes a drama lesson in which a class of grade-one students spent one and a half hours engaged with second-year elementary education student teachers. Illustrates the power of drama to deeply engage students in a range of language arts activities. (SR)

Uses the authors' experiences with a professional development project to propose a model of teacher community, describing the challenge of negotiating the essential tension of teacher community and the challenge of maintaining diverse perspectives within a social group. A model of the markers of community formation as manifested in participants'…

Examined the socialization experiences of tenure-track and tenured African American faculty at two urban black colleges, exploring influences and barriers in the socialization experience. Faculty believed that clear institutional values and expectations (learned formally and informally) influenced the socialization process. A perceived barrier was…

Focuses on the use of music as instructional material in early literacy instruction. Uses specific examples of music to highlight concepts of print, a sense of story and sequence, phonemic awareness and phonics, background knowledge and vocabulary, basic spelling patterns, and early writing activities. Concludes with an invitation for…

Focuses on three books that tackle what it means to effectively organize classrooms for literacy instruction. Notes that these texts emphasize the role of teachers as researchers working in collaboration with one another and with university researchers. (SG)

Discusses how to make instructional improvement decisions using data-based assessment. Describes three steps in using data-based assessment: developing the right questions, collecting and analyzing the data, and providing staff support to make effective use of the data. Effective use of assessment data requires both quality data and sufficient…

We describe a simple undergraduate exercise involving the titration of a weak acid by a strong base using a pH meter and a micropipette. Students then use their data and carry out graphical analyses with a spreadsheet. The analyses involve using mathematical concepts such as first-derivative and semi-log plots and provide an opportunity for…

This chapter defines key terms and orients readers to the ideas explored in the rest of this volume.