Data on Texas teachers underscore the need for teacher education programs to prepare increasing numbers of teachers, and for those teachers to be better prepared with strong subject content knowledge and skills to address the diverse student needs they will encounter in the classroom. This paper presents a data profile of the Texas teacher,…

On March 6, 1984, Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander signed into law the Comprehensive Education Reform Act, which its supporters have called the nation's most ambitious statewide teacher career-ladder and incentive-pay program. In its final version, the legislature set up a five-step career ladder with annual salary incentives ranging from $500…

A process policy model that contains a broad range of categories and matrices that can be used to generate questions is used to analyze the development and application of selected segments of the South Carolina Educator Improvement Act. This act is a comprehensive legislative endeavor to upgrade public education in South Carolina. This paper…

Disputing the claim that improved student learning requires stronger academic standards and stiffer tests, the authors of this book contend that effective state reform depends on coherence in policy and practice, and opportunities for professional learning. It draws on a study of a program in California that worked to improve mathematics teaching…

In response to a need expressed by Kentucky teachers for curriculum guides as a very important priority that should be addressed to improve instruction and learning as part of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), the study reported here was undertaken. The study investigated the extent to which the state documents and guidelines had been…

As part of an ongoing evaluation of the Chelsea Public School System-Boston University (BU) partnership in Massachusetts, a survey was done of 165 teachers to determine their reactions to this effort at school reform and their opinions concerning several matters related to education in Chelsea and the Chelsea-BU partnership. A year and a half…

A study was done of novice teachers in California's public education system to examine how well they function in the language diverse metropolitan classrooms. Fall and Spring surveys were administered to 1,368 new teachers, and Spring surveys were administered to the directors of induction projects in which the new teachers participated. Findings…

This book presents 15 papers on the subject of what teachers must know for effective teaching. The book organizes the papers into three parts: Part I offers papers on teaching particular academic subjects, Part II offers papers on the diverse needs and types of students, and Part III offers conclusions. The following papers are in Part I: (1)…

A study investigated both how teachers' effectiveness in the classroom reflected on their pupils' performance on the Certificate of Primary Education and whether teacher training programs prepared teachers for practical classroom demands. Responses were gathered from questionnaires and unstructured interviews with trained primary school teachers,…

As long as students with limited English language skills have attended California schools a debate has raged among educators and policy-makers regarding how best to educate these children. A major focal point of this debate is bilingual education. That is, the viability, advisability, and effectiveness of using students' primary language in…

This bulletin summarizes the findings of a study that sought to determine what policies, regulations, and practices teachers believed posed the most significant constraints on their classroom activities; whether these constraints originated at the federal, state, local, or school level; and what effect the costraints had on quality instruction and…

The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) is an integrated study of public and private schools, school districts, principals, and teachers. The survey was first conducted in the 1987-88 school year, again in 1990-91, and will be repeated at 3-year intervals. The 1987-88 sample consisted of 56,000 teachers in 9,300 public schools and 11,000 teachers…

This report addresses questions related to increasing the numbers of Latino teachers in U.S. classrooms and improving the preparation of those teachers and all teachers of Latino children. The report presents demographic data on Latinos concerning: percentage of total population, population projections, states of residence, median age, educational…

Some of the major findings of CSE's (Center for the Study of Evaluation) Test Use in Schools Project are synthesized and interpreted. The Project incorporated fieldwork and survey techniques to answer questions about the kinds of tests teachers administer in their classrooms, the kinds of information teachers need from tests to make decisions…

The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 ("NCLB" or "the Act") defines an aggressive, ambitious and multi-faceted approach for increasing student achievement and closing the achievement gap. Premised on the correlation between student academic achievement and teacher quality, NCLB demands that all students, regardless of…