The current high-stakes accountability environment brought on by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) places great pressure on school districts to demonstrate success by meeting yearly progress goals for student achievement and eventually demonstrating that all students achieve at high standards. In particular, many urban school…

The great paradox of school reform, according to the author of this short speech, is that, on the one hand, states mandate that student performance must improve; on the other hand, states do not act to improve the performance of educators. Even when the policies are the most progressive and the standards of the state are of the highest quality,…

This paper is part of a collection of 54 papers from the 48th annual conference of the Education Law Association held in November 2002. It addresses the convergence of education and law. It focuses on the growth in the field of education law and the need for educators and lawyers to work together with a knowledge of each others discipline. The…

In the current climate of accountability, the responsibilities of principals have increased. The new role of principals requires new forms of training, and standards-based reform is generating major changes in principal-preparation programs. This digest examines some of those changes. First, it looks at the effectiveness of principal-preparation…

The purpose of this professional development manual is to provide materials and activities for developing and using assessments in social studies. The manual came about through the efforts of the 25 state consortium Comprehensive Social Studies Assessment Project (CSSAP) to make the alignment of assessments, curricula, and instructional programs…

This inservice professional development module, part of the Alabama Reading Initiative, presents research summaries, notes for presenters, and activities. The Comprehension Strategies module explains the process of building comprehension in readers so that they read for meaning and understanding. There are six interferences to comprehension that…

This inservice professional development module, part of the Alabama Reading Initiative, presents research summaries, notes for presenters, and activities. The Comprehension Strategies module explains the process of building comprehension in readers so that they read for meaning and understanding. There are six interferences to comprehension that…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics emphasizes that young children need play-based opportunities to develop and deepen their conceptual understanding of mathematics. From a social-constructivist perspective, learning is more likely to occur if adults or more-competent peers mediate children's learning experiences. Emphasizing both the…

The purposes of this study were to investigate changes of science teaching and to explore the factors which influenced changes of three first grade teachers when implementing an in-service project. The researcher, the leader teacher and three first grade teachers built a collaborative relationship to hold a teacher development group. The leader…

This document is designed to facilitate the state of Wisconsin's Planning Curriculum in Mathematics. Planning Curriculum in Mathematics complements Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards for Mathematics and puts into action the standards in the latter document. It is hoped that these materials will serve as springboards for contemplation by…

This Okaloosa-Walton Community College (Florida) Staff and Program Development (SPD) Plan provides a five-year framework to support the enhancement of college personnel and the expansion and improvement of college programs and services. To give direction and support to the activities of SPD, the document details a set of goals: (1) to evaluate…

Noting the increasing recognition of the importance of quality early child care in Kansas, this report examines the status of child care in Kansas and efforts to improve quality. The report discusses the need for quality care, focusing on the increase in the number of working families, the importance of the early years for brain development, and…

This paper describes data from focus groups conducted with elementary teacher mentors at two Professional Development School (PDS) sites. The focus group sessions emphasized four themes: teachers' decisions to get involved in a PDS, teachers' perceived barriers to PDS success, how teachers benefit from PDSs, and recommendations for improvement.…

An examination was made of how newly hired counselors in eastern North Carolina were functioning in schools. An attempt was also made to determine the counselors' level of satisfaction with these roles. School principals of participating counselors completed surveys to ascertain the degree to which their perceptions agreed with that of their…

This bulletin is designed to illustrate the broad range of research and improvement activities supported by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Contents include: "Model Professional Development Programs Win Recognition,""Are Our Schools Safe?,""Charter Schools on the Rise,""What to Expect Your First Year of Teaching,""Evaluating…