The National Council for the Social Studies affirms the importance of teaching and learning about human rights "from early childhood through advanced education and lifelong learning." Today, as the challenges to human rights and democracy have proliferated across the globe and domestically, NCSS renews and expands that commitment,…

Numerous actors influence how educational policies play out in practice, but this does not mean that policies themselves are without power. Policies are crafted and enacted in part because they serve as signal and symbol: How a policy is formally codified establishes expectations, exerts norming influence, and catalyzes shifts in how issues are…

The primary purpose of this publication is to provide those involved in special education teacher preparation and professional development with a set of high-leverage practices (HLPs) that were identified through consensus among special educators. These HLPs may be used to design a cohesive set of practice based opportunities to support teacher…

"Schools' First and Forever Responders: Preparing and Supporting Teachers in the Time of COVID-19" elevates a rationale and considerations for evidence-based strategies and innovative approaches to support teachers and teacher candidates during and following the COVID-19 crisis. Because teachers are the most vital in-school education…

Improving teacher preparation is critical to long-term improvement in teacher quality. More than 200,000 new teachers enter classrooms each year. Increasing student enrollment, the retirement of baby boom generation teachers, and high attrition in their first five years (between 40 and 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession) have…

Education is the process of handing down to the rising generation the wisdom and experience of the generations that have gone before. Now, as mankind is hesitatingly turning into new paths here and there it is all the more necessary that the most careful attention be given to the points of departure and the reason for departing from the old ones.…

The document is part of the final report on Project STEEL (Special Teacher Education and Evaluation Laboratory) intended to extend the utilization of technology in the training of preservice special education teachers. This volume focuses on the first of four project objectives, the development and implementation of a microcomputer-based…

This digest examines the spread of mentoring in the United States, obstacles to realizing the potential of mentoring as a vehicle of reform, needed research, and selected issues of policy and practice. While the education community understands that mentors have a positive effect on teacher retention, the question of what mentors should do, what…

This paper contains recommendations for licensure for individuals working as early childhood special educators in a variety of settings. The fundamental position presented is that a free-standing credentialling process separate from the credentialling of general educators or of special educators is required for people who work with young children,…

This report presents the results of a recent survey of teacher preparation courses in Queensland, Australia, an analysis of the literature on course content, and recommendations. Recommendations address course content, the nature of practical training experiences, the need for institutions of higher education to reconceptualize teacher preparation…

Teaching for understanding is a concept that portrays teachers as guides, coaches, and facilitators of student learning. This book, which provides concrete illustrations of what teaching for understanding entails, is divided into chapters as follows: (1) "Introduction: New Visions of Teaching" (Milbrey W. McLaughlin, Joan E. Talbert);…

The current status and future directions of the field of mental disabilities in Iowa are discussed in the following papers, among others: "Regular Education Initiative and Its Impact on Mental Disabilities" (Carol Bradley); "Mild Mental Retardation Across the Lifespan: Current and Future Considerations" (James Patton);…

The National High School Project was initiated to provide policy makers at the federal, state, and local levels with the information needed to design and evaluate the quality of special education programs serving youth with mild to moderate disabilities. This project report describes the results of a series of five surveys which examined multiple…

In 1987-88, the National Center for Education Statistics conducted six major surveys that collected information on various aspects of the teaching profession. The surveys included: the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), the Common…