Given the evident potential shown by developing new technologies, there are increasingly more companies that develop and implement training programs that use the new-technology-based facilities. Likewise, suppliers developing new-technology-based programs have emerged seeking greater effectiveness and cost reduction as opposed to traditional…

Assessing student performance is one of the most critical aspects of the job of a classroom teacher; however, many teachers do not feel adequately prepared to assess their students performance. In order to measure and compare preservice and inservice teachers' assessment literacy', two groups wee surveyed using the "Classroom Assessment Literacy…

School districts write mission statements about creating citizens of the world, but more and more, they want teachers to become robotic hands who deliver education programs designed and shipped from sites outside of classrooms. If people want an educated citizenry, they need teachers who know how to think about their students' needs and write…

This essay describes the broad consideration of educational standards that occurred with a cohort of masters' licensure students in public, urban university and high school contexts. This deliberation over standards was rooted in the model of standards development presented by these future teachers' licensure program and called upon this next…

Considerable resources have been committed to providing information and communication technology in Australian schools. However, little is known about their effects on professional practice and student learning. This paper reports two main aspects of the data emerging from a current, ongoing three-year study (2002-04) Years 3, 5 and 7 of…

Professional Development Schools (PDSs) emerged in the USA in the mid-1980s as a promising approach to simultaneously improving teacher education and the quality of education students receive in kindergarten through grade 12 (public) schools. This new form of school-university partnership enabled teacher educators to design new models for…

This article offers an insight into the professional development and learning of an experienced teacher and middle manager in a secondary school stimulated by engaging in an innovative, mixed-mode Master's-level course at the Institute of Education, University of London. At its core is the personal narrative of the teacher as a learner based on a…

This article describes a school improvement initiative involving five primary schools (ages 5-11 years) working in partnership with each other with support from a university department of education. It provides evidence of the benefits to be gained from teachers sharing and developing collective knowledge through participation in school-based…

New information on the characteristics of elementary school principals is included in the most recent Schools and Staffing Survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The results show that the number of public elementary school principals grew from 54,000 in 1993-1994 to 61,000 in 2003-2004. This roughly corresponds to the…

A variety of barriers relating to resources, institutional and administrative policies, skills development and attitudes can hinder the effectiveness of technology professional development resulting in underutilized technology resources and lack of integration of those resources within instruction. Multiple methods were used to evaluate the…

In this article, the author identifies two current--and competing--discourses concerning teaching and public education in general. One is the "official" discourse, embodied in "No Child Left Behind" language, with a focus on accountability, standards, credentials, and testing, accompanied by punitive measures for failing to…

This article seeks to explore how teachers develop assessment for learning practices in secondary school science, mathematics and English classrooms. Drawing on interviews, teacher reflective writing, lesson observations and field notes of teacher meetings, it highlights the importance of opportunities for professional dialogue between teachers…

All teacher education programs face the challenge of ensuring that their graduates know their subject matter and can teach it effectively. For graduate level teacher education programs, whose candidates may complete their education in the content area at various institutions, this challenge is even greater. The following article describes one…

Narrowing the achievement gap between students who are native English speakers and those learning English as a second language is one of the biggest challenges facing U.S. educators. This article discusses the approaches used by the Saint Paul (Minn.) Public Schools in narrowing this achievement gap. Saint Paul (Minn.) Public Schools has one of…

This article describes the implementation of a state-funded grant, the challenges that emerged, and the lessons learned. This yearlong grant, Technology[superscript 3], provided the resources for university faculty, teacher candidates, and cooperating teachers to integrate technology. Findings from the grant did not indicate significant changes in…