California has developed a new series of credential examinations for foreign language teachers to make it possible to test the competence of teachers in six languages less frequently taught than Spanish and French. These languages are German, Japanese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Russian, and Vietnamese. Each assessment is based on the specifications…

The College of Education and Human Services at Western Illinois University has established a model to prepare teachers with technical expertise and new methodologies for using educational resources, in order to enable students to use audio, video, computer, telecommunications, distance learning, and interactive multimedia technologies as essential…

This conference provided a forum for presenting research findings to educators and other audiences interested in marketing education. The following papers were presented: "Issues and Trends in Wisconsin Marketing Education" (Searle); "Competencies Necessary for Student Teachers" (Littman); "A Report of a Study of More than…

The work of the Assessment Development Laboratory (ADL) at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) in developing an assessment for identifying accomplished teachers of English language arts to young adolescents (aged 11 to 15 years) for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is reviewed. The assessment is meant to…

This publication provides a theoretical framework for a Finnish research project, "Effectiveness of Teacher Education." The collection of papers includes two parts. Part 1, "Approaches to Evaluation," offers: "Effectiveness of Teacher Education--A Theoretical Framework of Communicative Evaluation and the Design of a…

This report examines the effectiveness of Texas' Centers for Professional Development of Teachers (CPDTs) in addressing diversity as part of educational excellence. The state board of education's five proficiencies for teachers provide the framework within which the report describes program characteristics. For each proficiency, the report…

Teacher preparation programs are in danger of seriously under-preparing elementary teachers to teach mathematics for understanding if they wait to provide students with evidence of effective mathematics teaching methods in the mathematics methods courses. With strong traditional beliefs about how mathematics ought to be taught and their…

Opportunities to interact with their school-aged peers gives young people an avenue for learning the social skills necessary to build healthy relationships, to interact at an acceptable level in a group structure and respect for the individual differences of others around them. These skills take on a greater importance after high school due to …

"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) Preparing, Recruiting, and Retaining Education Professionals: Senator Reed Proposes New $500 Million Bill to Improve…

This paper asserts that central to the debate over excellence and equity in education is the shifting nature of authority over public education in the schools and school districts of Greater Boston, Massachusetts, noting that the autonomy that local school districts have historically exercised is fading, if not gone. The 1993 Massachusetts…

This report examines the impact of teacher quality on student achievement in Canada, analyzing current research, practices, and innovations to provide a better understanding of the complexity of teaching and effective teacher deployment. The nine chapters focus on: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "Indicators of Teacher Quality" (defining teacher quality…

This education plan sets out a vision for instruction and school development so that Chicago Public Schools, Illinois, can become the premier urban school district in the United States. It represents a year of planning and program development in the areas of human capital, professional development, the Chicago Reading Initiative, the redesign of…

This collection of papers describes the process of creating a standards-based teacher education program through strong collaboration among arts and science, education, and P-12 faculty members and administrators. The Standards-based Teacher Education Project (STEP) was designed to help teacher education programs ensure that their graduates know…

As part of the graduate teacher licensure program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, candidates are required to complete an action research project during a course that coincides with the student teaching experience. The syllabus for the course, "Education 590 Culminating Experience," is included, followed by action research projects…

A long-standing dilemma in career and technical education (CTE) has been the best way to train new teachers. Recent literature reviews by Bruening et al. (2001) and Gray and Walter (2001) provide overviews of current CTE teacher education programs and CTE teacher licensing and preparation. Some of their findings include a trend toward more…