In rural Minnesota many school districts are limited in their efforts to restructure by low enrollment, rural geographic location, meager tax base, narrow staff experience, extensive job responsibilities for staff, restricted staff development opportunities, and lack of direction in curriculum coordination. Because of actual or perceived…

A pilot program, the Professional Growth Experience (PGE), was designed and implemented by teacher educators from three Wisconsin teacher education programs to improve the guidance skills of cooperating teachers during their actual supervision of student teachers. Each PGE seminar enrolls no more than 10 currently engaged cooperating teachers and…

This document is a stand-alone training package for staff development providers in rural small schools. Based on research and best-practice information, the school improvement model used promotes cooperation, content transferability, and adaptations for long-term program maintenance. The underlying assumptions of the model are that when school…

This compendium provides information about 29 three-year teacher education projects, funded by the Department of Education in 1985. The projects seek to demonstrate that research utilization and sound practice can improve the preparation of teachers. The projects were developed and are operating collaboratively with local schools. Each has a…

Changes in the composition and attitudes of the work force have resulted in increased interest by employers in formulating and implementing career development efforts for their employees. Surveys have revealed: companies believe that career development efforts enhance employee performance and improve utilization of talents; most organizations have…

Information on fiscal year 1983-1984 awards made through the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education is provided. A list of recipients of new and continuation comprehensive program awards and final year dissemination awards is presented, along with new Mina Shaughnessy Scholars. For each new and continuation recipient, a statement of…

Project SHAL in St. Louis (Missouri) involved an attempt to reproduce effective schooling elements, as identified by research, in four inner-city schools, including one middle school (Stowe) and three K-5 schools (Hempstead, Arlington, and Laclede). The pilot project required the development of a replication model to track project implementation,…

A description is presented of an improvement program that focused upon a small, flexible, open primary school. The school had been targeted for improvement because of rather low test scores. Improvement efforts focused on findings from four basic strands of school research: (1) structured learning environment; (2) academic feedback; (3) high…

This report reviews recent research on strategies that have been found to promote useful and effective inservice training programs in desegregated schools. The first section presents approaches for planning and implementing inservice training for desegregation. The second section describes inservice desegregation training programs that focus on:…

The Institute for Development of Educational Activities (/I/D/E/A/) School Improvement Program (SIP) is based upon a school-based approach to staff development and school improvement program known as the Readiness, Planning, Training, Implementation, and Maintenance (RPTIM) Model. There are five stages to the RPTIM Model: (1) readiness, dealing…

This is an advance planning guide aimed at helping Chicago Public School principals carry out a school action plan, Academy for Effective Schools, in the 1984-85 school year. It suggest ways that schools can build on the school goals and practices established in previous plans. The terminology of the planning cycle is similar to that used in the…

The changes necessary for creating a quality school can best be made in a positive organizational climate because any real change requires the active involvement of people in the organization, who will not participate unless they are highly satisfied with their work environment. Such an open, facilitating, nurturing environment can only be…

Professional development of faculty is a more inclusive term than "faculty development," since it connotes concern for improving the conditions of student learning, awareness of changes in the role of the teacher and involvement with the health of the institution. The idea of professional development generates responses along a…

Strategies for implementing instructional improvement programs must consider institutional characteristics, needs assessment, program and organizational objectives, and the characteristics of the instructional improvement program. Checklists, tables, and matrices are presented to illustrate the cyclical nature of the process of program development…

This monograph speaks to the general problem of helping schools improve their effectiveness and specifically is concerned with the nature of strategies most appropriate for use by university-based research and development personnel. The purpose is to identify and describe some of the more important features of effective, clinically oriented…