Teacher candidates were tracked to monitor whether their former tutoring experience influenced their experiences as teacher candidates. Through interviews, email and group discussions, participants reflected on their teacher preparation experiences and their orientations to effective reading and writing instruction. At times, teacher candidates…

While there is a growing body of work that considers the implications of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) for rural schools, literature that critically examines the policy itself is lacking in rural educational research. This critical policy analysis focuses on the highly qualified teacher provision of NCLB as it relates to rural schools. The…

This study investigates teacher content knowledge of candidates enrolled in an online graduate teacher certification programme. Descriptive data and linear regression were used to draw conclusions about the content area knowledge of individuals in the sample and the significance of the predictors examined. Descriptive data show 1/3 of the 8-12…

English language learners (ELLs) in K-12 schools continue to increase in number across the country. In California alone, about 1.5 million students are not sufficiently proficient in English to perform optimally in mainstream classrooms. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 emphasizes the need for highly qualified teachers, but just who is…

The purpose of this concurrent, mixed-methods study was to examine the professional empowerment qualities of mid-career (years 4-8), science teachers. I used the construct of professional empowerment as the theoretical frame to explore K-12 mid-career science teachers' career trajectories and consider how they can be supported professionally and…

In this article, the author proposes that now is a propitious time to consider developing one or more distinctive teacher education programs in music. Undergraduate education should prepare some educators for more than excellence in the classroom, the concern of Karl Gehrkens in the 1920s. Individuals considering doctoral work, those with an…

As part of a two-year, mixed methods study, the focus of this paper reports the qualitative findings that are related to nine beginning teachers' learning to teach with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) during their first year of teaching. It aims to explore how these teachers deepen their understanding performances of technology…

Large numbers of young children spend significant amounts of time in early childhood educational settings. Concerns about the quality of this experience have increased substantially in recent years. Further, as social inequalities in Australia continue to grow the gap between disadvantage and advantage widens despite overall levels of increased…

Physics First--a movement to invert the traditional science course sequence to teach physics at the ninth-grade level--is gaining interest. However, there is limited literature exploring how to support teachers in successfully implementing Physics First. To address this, a professional development (PD) program supporting a cadre of teacher-leaders…

This article explores how knowledge can be built and shared in teachers' learning communities. The author creates two portraits of learning communities in action and contrasts them. Because teachers need to be knowledgeable in ever-changing contexts, ongoing professional learning simply must be part-and-parcel of their work. But how teacher…

This paper reports on the development and use of a classroom observation reflection tool designed to measure the extent to which pedagogies acknowledged in the literature as contributing to effective teaching of mathematics for numeracy are present in classrooms. The observation schedule was used in conjunction with a record of classroom activity…

This study responds to a request from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to analyze National Board certification among high school teachers in understudied subject areas and locales to help fill gaps in the research literature. The authors also were asked to use multiple indicators of performance. The research team selected two…

In this dissertation, I address the issue of social inequalities in education and the role of the education system in confronting them. The project involves two main parts, one empirical and the other conceptual. In the first part--chapters 1 and 2--I address the practical dimension of how to reduce social inequalities in education by exploring…

Music theory faculty members in all four-year institutions of higher education in Texas that are accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music and offer degrees in music education were invited to take an online survey. The content of the survey consisted of competencies taken directly from standards outlined by the National…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relation between primary grade teachers' knowledge of reading and reading instruction and a variety of educational, demographic, motivational, and self-perception variables. The sample for this study was comprised of 388 first, second, and third grade teachers. Data were obtained through the use of two…