This brochure presents the teacher education standards adopted by Alaska's State Board of Education. The standards are as follows: (1) a teacher can describe the teacher's philosophy of education and demonstrate its relationship to the teacher's practice; (2) a teacher understands how students learn and develop and applies that knowledge in the…

The purpose of this study was to answer the following questions: 1) How well prepared are chemistry teachers in terms of content and pedagogy, 2) What are chemistry teachers trying to accomplish in their teaching and what activities do they use to meet their objectives and 3) What are the barriers to effective chemistry teaching identified by…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Where High Turnover Meets Low Performance: New Initiatives Target the Special Problems of Hard-to-Staff Schools (Alexander Russo); (2) Parents as Partners in School Reform:…

Teachers make the greatest impact on students--what they learn, how they learn it, and what they do with it. Decades of research clearly demonstrate that a quality teacher, more than any other factor, enables students to overcome obstacles to learning like poverty and can even erase the achievement gap. The problem is that many teachers lack the…

This report examines data from the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), focusing on the achievement gap in Washington state public schools. It uses scale scores rather than simply "percentage meeting standard"; analyzes data on both individual and building levels; and displays data in many different ways designed to clarify…

Middle and high school American history teachers in Lake County, Illinois, use an innovative model of professional development created through collaboration between higher education institutions and public school districts. Goals of McRAH (Model Collaboration: Rethinking American History) are to (1) raise student achievement and engagement by…

Universities and colleges accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education are facing the prospects of measuring dispositions related to teaching. Dispositions selected for teacher candidates at the University of West Alabama are characteristics desirable in N-12 candidates. This pilot study was designed to assess…

This book discusses the most frequently encountered ethical dilemmas that can arise in higher educational settings and offers tips on how to avoid such predicaments and how to handle them when they occur. Ethical dilemmas are presented as short case scenarios. The 195 cases are grouped into 22 chapters in six parts. Part 1, "The Classroom…

This collection of conference papers includes: (1) "Using Market Forces to Make Title I More Effective" (Marci Kanstoroom and Tyce Palmaffy); (2) "Making Economically Grounded Decisions about Comprehensive School Reform Models: Considerations of Costs, Effects, and Contexts" (Jennifer King Rice); (3) "Does Title I Money…

The quality of teacher preparation is frequently under public scrutiny. In this collection, experts in literacy teacher preparation offer ten truths--based on evidence, not ideology-- that support the ongoing positive efforts of teacher educators. In this book, the reader will find: A review of the existing knowledge base; Evidence of the improved…

This report discusses evaluation and measurement of the quality of school teachers, emphasizing the problem of assessing competence, performance, and effectiveness through large-scale national sample surveys. Part 1 outlines types of issues and questions surrounding teacher quality that must be addressed, highlighting conventional and new…

This study investigated how school principals and media specialists in elementary and secondary schools perceive the preparation of pre-service teachers regarding media and technology and specific skills that should be required of beginning teachers. A survey instrument was administered to 83 principals and 83 media specialists employed at schools…

This report describes the development of teacher certification in America, arguing that changes in and debates about teacher certification have revolved around four clusters of questions: who should control teacher licensing; the proper basis for making decisions about assuring teacher competence in individual cases; elements of teacher training…

This 60-minute VHS videotape of a U.S. Department of Education Satellite Town Meeting focuses on the future of learning in U.S. schools and what it will take to create challenging, exciting, high performing schools. It explains that there cannot be excellent learning without excellent teaching. The 1985 National Teacher of the Year co-hosts this…

The University System of Georgia and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission formed the University System of Georgia Reading Consortium in response to Georgia's need to improve the preparation of teachers to teach reading. It emphasized the professional development of classroom teachers. Institutions seeking to offer a Reading Endorsement…