Creating and sustaining a collaborative culture takes work, effort and focus. If professional development delivered in the classrooms is to be successful, the focus and practice must become part of the school culture (Danielson, 2002). Providing in-classroom professional development has been the key to instructional reform at Lee Richmond…

Students in York County, Pennsylvania, live near Amish communities, and recognize the influence of Amish culture within their own lives through food, decorative arts, furniture, and quilts. The understanding of the cultural ideas used in Amish quilts, however, is not often explored. Two regional art educators, Trisha Coggins and Sara Little, were…

English as a Second Language (ESL) and mainstream teachers' collaboration has largely been presented in policy as the unproblematic sharing of ideas. However, in the 20 years since this policy has been in place within Victoria, Australia, teachers are still struggling to find ways of effectively working together. This paper presents a theoretical…

According to this author, professional development in most school districts usually is not what teachers call worthwhile. Most is mandatory and tied to the latest literacy "fix," new district systems, text adoptions and occasionally, a speaker who has something new to share. She contends that meaningful professional development should be an…

In true David Letterman style, this article presents a Top Ten List for why and how it's important to get to know the beginning teacher next door or just down the hall and listen for call signals. What follows is the Top Ten List for becoming a mentor: (1) establish reciprocal collaboration through trust; (2) offer a shoulder of support; (3) share…

This article recounts how a communications and an engineering department instituted a team-teaching venture to supplement engineering students' communication skills in a discipline-specific context.

How do principals get teachers past isolation to create a top school? Principals must create a web of leadership, a nonhierarchical structure of authority and control. While they remain at the center, they are supported only when they learn to delegate. Teachers learn to take on leadership roles, creating a more vested interest and lessening the…

New technologies now offer teachers alternative models of collaboration with schools overseas, but how effective are they as professional development opportunities? The experiences of 18 specialist primary and secondary teachers in the Teachers' International Professional Development Programme who visited schools in the USA were investigated as…

General education and special education teacher candidates lack experience in collaborating with each other as colleagues; however, upon graduating and entering their own classrooms, most are expected to know how to provide services to students with disabilities in the general classroom. This study describes the efforts of two professors, one in…

High schools are under tremendous pressure to increase graduation rates and lower dropout numbers. A survey conducted for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation indicated that over a third of students entering high school never graduate on time. Students who drop out claim that the curriculum is disconnected from real life and that their schools…

Researchers at the National Center on Performance Incentives recently examined teacher attitudes towards pay for performance policies in education, and how these views vary by teacher experience, subject area specialization, grade level taught, educational background, personality characteristics, risk and time preferences, and feelings of…

The 21 urban research universities that are members of the Great Cities' Universities (GCU) annually enroll approximately 20 percent of the students in the United States who are preparing to teach in K12 urban schools. This study examined the experiences of GCU-sponsored, school-university teacher preparation partnerships in Atlanta, Houston,…

In an effort to promote quality inclusive schooling for all children in New York State, the New York State Department of Education Vocational and Education Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) teamed with Syracuse University School of Education to develop a consortium of over 65 colleges and universities state-wide with teacher…

Educational reformers in New Zealand and England have turned their attention towards network creation as a way of facilitating school improvement. The idea is that greater collaboration can drive school improvement through building professional learning communities, spreading best practice, and driving innovation in education. It is based on a…

Finding time for teams to work in schools is both a necessity and a responsibility. If educators are sincere about efforts to improve student learning, leaders must take responsibility for providing team time for teachers and a structure in which they are able to work collaboratively. The Papillion-La Vista (Nebraska) Public Schools took to heart…