"A Nation at Risk" sounded the call for school improvement and offered recommendations for bringing it about. "No Child Left Behind" was even more prescriptive in its approach to raising student achievement. However, as the author of this article points out, for all their recommendations and strategies, both reform efforts neglect the essential…

The purpose of this article is to help better prepare pre-service/student teachers for the little things they should do during their student teaching experience, while at the same time give those who work with pre-service and student teachers (PETE faculty) a reminder of little things they can emphasize to help prepare students for the student…

Robust leadership is increasingly recognised as a critical element of healthy professions, yet some research suggests that early childhood practitioners do not readily identify with the concept of leadership. This article explores some dimensions of leadership in early childhood and how it is understood and practised in Australian early childhood…

Background: In exploring the complexity of teaching, scholars have suggested that greater attention needs to be paid to the teachers' thoughts and actions and to how these affect quality teaching. Up to today, very few studies have investigated the relationship between teachers' beliefs and practices even though it has an important role to play in…

Findings in this article indicate that training programs use a key pedagogical and ideological discourse of "teachers make a difference" to motivate female early childhood education students to enter and stay in the field. However, research in the area of workforce retention maintains that many graduates are not willing to enter and stay…

Whereas findings from recent research highlight the importance of teacher quality in improving students' academic performances and experiences of schooling, substantive and methodological issues surrounding the conceptualisation and evaluation of "teacher quality" are not well understood. Such deficiencies are particularly evident in claims for…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perception of basic school teachers towards inclusive education in the Hohoe District of Ghana. The research makes use of a descriptive survey design, which engaged both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. A sample size of 100 respondents, comprising of 60 male teachers and 40 female…

Teachers must be prepared to recognize valid alternative representations of arithmetic problems. Challenging examples involving mixed fractions and division are presented along with teacher's discussion from a professional development workshop. (Contains 6 figures and 1 table.)

Volunteers play an integral role in supporting the mission of 4-H programs in the southern region. For this reason their proficiency in volunteer administration competence and perceived leadership style is important. The researchers sought to examine both the perceived proficiency of 4-H faculty in the southern region in seven competencies…

This "Report Card to the Public" is published in accordance with Alaska Statute 14.03.120 for the school year 2012-2013. Under state law, each school district is required to report information about its plans and performance to its community. This report includes a statewide summary of performance results. Public knowledge of the school…

State oversight for teacher preparation programs mostly ignores the impact of graduates on the K-12 students they teach, and it gives little attention to where graduates teach or how long they remain in the profession. There is no evidence that current state policies hold programs to high standards in order to produce teachers who can help…

Our current system for holding U.S. teacher education programs accountable doesn't guarantee program quality or serve the needs of schools and students. State oversight for teacher preparation programs mostly ignores the impact of graduates on the K-12 students they teach, and it gives little attention to where graduates teach or how long they…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Senate Appropriations Committee Passes Education Funding Bill: Bill Would Target 40 Percent of School Improvement…

Given calls to diversify the teaching workforce, this review examines research on retention and turnover of teachers of color, focusing on new teachers because they leave at disproportionately high rates. Reviewing 70 studies, the authors found that (a) recent national studies identify turnover rates for teachers of color are now higher than those…

Since its inception in 1987, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards[R] (NBPTS) has met its goals of creating standards for what teachers should know and be able to do and established a national voluntary certification system for accomplished teachers. To help commemorate its 20th anniversary, the NBPTS has published this report to…