This resource guide provides information to teachers, business/industry representatives, and local administrators who are interested in working together to update technical/teaching skills of vocational teachers. It contains a purpose, objectives, and a list of activities designed to upgrade teacher occupational competencies. Information for…

Three small rural school districts in Montana and Wyoming used alternate school day scheduling to make time for staff and curriculum development inservice programs. The schedule of one short and four long days delivered the instructional time of 175 6-hour days each year. Benefits of alternate scheduling included time for regular inservice…

A staff development model for community college part-time faculty is presented as developed at Clark County Community College (CCCC). Introductory material discusses staff development in the community colleges, the paucity of materials on the development of part-time faculty, and the creation of the model staff development plan at Clark. Next, the…

Recent concern for the quality of education has placed pressure on school administrators to assess and upgrade the competency of their teaching staff. No simple formula exists for measuring teacher competency, however, nor are any new methods guaranteed to improve the quality of instruction. Nevertheless, through a combination of clinical…

To improve instruction, teachers need to be brought together to work on common instructional concerns in a professional environment. To create it, supervisors need to provide more opportunities for teachers to make choices, discuss their work, observe each other, and help beginning teachers ease into their responsibilities. (Author/DCS)

This speech addresses the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and educators' and policymakers' reactions to it. The talk focuses on three ways people are responding to the Act. Some, according to the speaker, consider the law to be malevolent and a conspiracy by the Bush Administration to start handing education over to private corporations. This camp…

"Learning to Lead Together: The Promise and Challenge of Sharing Leadership" examines the dilemmas for school leaders and administrators, and the benefits for schools and students, when principals work with teachers (and their communities) to share leadership. Most schools function within existing hierarchical structures that contradict…

This book provides a reflective process through which teachers may consider their distinctness as educators in a Catholic school. After an overview that discusses the ideal Catholic school teacher, the book focuses on five themes: Teacher as Community Builder; Teacher as Committed to Lifelong Spiritual Growth; Teacher as Committed to Lifelong…

Presents the results of a survey of 922 Alabama secondary mathematics teachers' perceived needs for in-service training. Factor analysis produced six factors, with the factors New Knowledge, Teaching Marginal Students, and Computer Use and Knowledge containing the eight most significant needs. The most significant need was for more parent-student…

Identifies four possible conceptions of good teaching in general that can be transferred to art education. Discusses competencies expected in new art teachers, current inadequacies in art teacher preparation, and inadequacies in subject knowledge. Includes a table containing 34 competencies expected of prospective art teachers. (CFR)

This guide provides teacher educators and staff developers with strategies to enhance the reflective thinking abilities of preservice and inservice educators. Strategies for reflective thinking are approached at three levels: technical, contextual, and dialectical. Within each level, strategies have been field tested with populations of preservice…

This brief report summarizes a monograph of the same title. Evidence of increasing interest in high school-college partnerships is presented. Among the reasons cited for renewed interest are: changing student population, students' frequent lack of skills preparedness, and the awareness of a need for new models of inservice staff development for…

The Partners in Elementary Science (PIES) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is a model Teacher Enhancement project. Its goal was to develop and test a program to help elementary teachers strengthen their science teaching by addressing areas of need, specifically teachers' confidence in teaching inquiry science and helping teachers…

Recent statistics show that nationwide about 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession within their first six years of teaching. In an effort to encourage the persistence of new teachers and to enhance their productivity and competence in the classroom, many school districts have begun supportive programs for the beginning teacher, known as…

These three conference presentations on teacher evaluation cover gathering and using evaluation information. Robert D. Brown emphasizes the communication and trust necessary to maintaining a good working relationship during and after evaluations. Basic strategies of data gathering and reporting are covered, as well. Using a management information…