While current literature identifies the characteristics of a successful professional development school (PDS)/university partnership, it is imperative for universities to consider the impact of clinical placements on the training and development of preservice teachers. What is missing from the literature are the views of the preservice teachers on…

Reform efforts are often unsuccessful because they failed to understand that teachers play a key role in making educational reforms successful. This paper describes a long-term teacher professional development (PD) program aimed at educating and training teachers to teach interdisciplinary topics using case-based method in science. The research…

Although multicultural citizenship education has been theorized as a goal of social studies, there is a paucity of empirical research to illustrate what actually occurs in diverse schools and classrooms. In this study, I explore two teachers' efforts to integrate multicultural content into the implemented social studies curriculum. Although the…

In this article, the author relates how he initiated a systemic improvement to Half Hollow Hills school district when he became its superintendent. He relates that although he came to Half Hollow Hills with a deep understanding of the models of systemic change, he did not bring with him a specific prescriptive plan for improvement. His plan for…

Our role as teachers in universities should not be to simply keep up-to-date with new technologies; rather, we should be leaders in the use of new and emerging technologies to effectively meet the changing needs of learners. (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper reports on two years of a multiyear consultation/professional development project based on socioconstructivist principles (situated cognition, social context, and scaffolded instruction) that are consistent with key elements of positive psychology. The consultation model used a case analysis framework to engage 12 elementary school…

Educators have been challenged to meet the needs of students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. Although this mandate has existed for 30 years, local educators report difficulties with program planning; graduation and grading of students with disabilities; recruitment and retention of qualified teachers; ensuring access of all…

Cyber-or computer-mediated communication is transforming school counselor education in curriculum delivery, supervision, and professional development, as well as changing the nature of interactions among counselors, school personnel, parents, counselor educators, students, and field supervisors. This article describes how new technologies are…

School councils have operated successfully in non-government schools for many years. By contrast, the establishment of school councils in the government school sector has had a much shorter history. In New South Wales, school council members are elected representatives of the broader school community. This study focused on government schools in…

Around the world, the importance of education to individual and societal success has increased at a breathtaking pace as a new knowledge-based economy has emerged. As a consequence, most countries have been engaged in intensive reforms of their education systems, and many have focused especially on improving teacher education, recognizing that…

This article illustrates the development and use of a situated assessment tool in the context of a collaborative (university-school district) literacy reform effort in British Columbia, Canada. The three-year project was focused on improving literacy, including reading comprehension strategy use, among students in grades 4 through 8. It began in…

Recent reform initiatives, especially the No Child Left Behind Act, tend to rely on a variety of highly debatable assumptions that fail to reflect the diversity of today's classrooms and also place pressure on educators in a manner we characterize as accountability by assumption. Such reform initiatives have become so political, complex, and…

The early drafts of the National Science Education Standards (NSES) did not include any mention of staff development; it was not considered as part of the needed visions for changing school science. It was when the final draft was offered to the leadership in the National Academy of Sciences that a section on Staff Development was added in…

In the last twenty years colleges have begun to emphasize the importance of career training in undergraduate programs. The current investigation addressed three questions related to this movement. First, are college students, in general, aware of the educational requirements of their preferred career? Second, are the perceptions of psychology…

Every month, "Leadership" features articles written in an informal, conversational style that provide practical information for school administrators. This issue of "Leadership" contains the following titles: (1) "A Culture of Greatness"; (2) "Achieving and Sustaining Greatness" (Sandra Carsten); (3)…