This report is the result of the participation of hundreds of students, families, school educators, and researchers who dedicated their time and energy to investigating the critical role that families and communities play in ensuring students and schools can flourish. It is a culmination of over two years of collaborative research and hundreds of…

Researchers have linked self-efficacy to a wide array of outcomes including psychological adjustment, resilience, physical health, achievement, and self-regulation, among others. In this article, the author describes self-efficacy and the factors that contribute to it, highlights the positive outcomes that self-efficacy leads to, and provides…

For decades teacher leadership has been widely promoted by policy makers and education leaders as a prime strategy for improving the educational enterprise. As practitioners of exemplary teaching, as innovators of pedagogy and curriculum, and as promoters of high-quality instruction for all students, teacher leaders are uniquely positioned to…

In this paper we draw upon 14 semi-structured interviews with the participants in a teacher-researcher project on the theme of "ensuring African Caribbean attainment" with the aim of shedding light on the purposes, processes and lived experiences of teacher research in a difficult and contentious intellectual and practical domain. After…

Teachers' personal self-efficacy about their ability to motivate students and encourage learning has been shown to affect the classroom they create and student achievement. Therefore, research has been conducted on ways to increase teacher efficacy for in-service and pre-service teachers. One area of research that has been explored is the impact…

One goal of professional development is to improve student achievement through improved teacher practice. The middle school philosophy, which supports the rationale that student learning is inextricably interwoven into the fabric of an active learning environment, contains many promising practices that "mirror" what is often considered to be high…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This April 15, 2005 issue of "Chronicle for Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "M.A. Students as Pledges" (Hengen, Nicholas); (2) "It's All An Illusion" (Schweber, Simone); (3)…

Education researchers and policymakers agree that teachers differ in terms of quality and that quality matters for student achievement. Despite prodigious amounts of research, however, debate still persists about the causal relationship between specific teacher credentials and student achievement. In this paper, we use a rich administrative data…

Presents several common misperceptions about student evaluation of college faculty members. Asserts that it is essential to examine the operational processes used to measure effective teaching. Discusses the role of research, the importance of sociology, and the utility of standardized assessments of student learning in faculty evaluation. (CFR)

This collection of papers focuses on what is known and practiced in professional development. Part 1, "The Purposes of Professional Development," includes (1) "Educational Purposes and Teacher Development" (Maxine Greene); (2) "Going Public: The Imperative of Public Education in the 21st Century" (Carl D. Glickman and…

School reform in the 1990s has been focused on school-based restructuring, with local efforts shown to be more successful than earlier central or remote control approaches. Success has followed changes in teachers' classroom behavior, in the structure of the school, and its school culture. The local school restructuring approach is illustrated…

This document (book) reports on the Strategic Alliance to Advance Technological Education through Enhanced Mathematics, Science, Technology, and English Education at the Secondary Level, funded by National Science Foundation. It was a collaborative partnership involving the Rockford Public Schools, Rock Valley College, and Northern Illinois…