Among all in-school factors that impact student learning, teachers carry the most weight -- but school leaders are not far behind. Decades of research have proven the positive influence principals can have on student achievement, school climate and teaching quality. New evidence suggests that their impact may be even greater than previously…

State policymakers and the public at large have a vested interest in the successful governance of their higher education institutions. The citizens who are appointed or elected to serve as board members of a state's colleges and universities oversee valuable public assets that they hold in trust for the state and for current and future…

The article outlines a framework for studying and organizing infrastructure, social and material to advance consequential knowledge. To demonstrate the utility of the framework, three examples of innovation in teacher education are presented that involve re-mediating infrastructure to imagine equity-oriented teacher learning. The first case…

In a previously published report, our researcher-practitioner partnership demonstrated the effectiveness of a coursework plus higher-dosage coaching professional development intervention (Expanding Quality, EQ) at improving the quality of teacher interactions with children birth-to-3 in center- and home-based child care settings. The current study…

As states review, refine, and implement new academic standards, professional learning activities,also known as professional development (PD), should be scheduled in order to support educators. At the request of a state education agency, the Center on Standards and Assessments Implementation (CSAI) conducted a scan of six states' PD opportunities…

As comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) professional development becomes increasingly available to current K-12 physical education teachers, this special feature shifts attention to the preparation of future PE teachers and teacher educators for CSPAP. The purpose of this concluding article is to summarize the undergraduate- and…

This paper describes the use of Mathematics Action Research Projects (ARPs) as a capstone experience in lieu of a Master's Thesis in a Master's program for in-service secondary teachers. The ARPs include two primary components: (i) each teacher participant conducts mathematical research that is new to them on a topic that is connected in some way…

We posit that professional development (PD) models fall on a continuum from highly adaptive to highly specified, and that these constructs provide a productive way to characterize and distinguish among models. The study reported here examines the impact of an adaptive mathematics PD model on teachers' knowledge and instructional practices as well…

This study looks deeply inside 17 schools that stand at the vanguard of the current revolution in teaching. This new National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) report reveals the substantive ways in which these schools are providing their teachers with more time to reflect on, develop, and hone their craft, by very explicitly leveraging an…

The MAST-EL University and School Partnership supports a strategic infrastructure for preparing preservice and in-service teachers ensuring high quality mathematics and science instruction for English learners (ELs). The partnership in its second year consists of thirty-two in-service elementary teachers, three instructional coaches, thirty…

A Colorado district develops a two-year program that gives teacher teams an opportunity to learn how to use digital tools in the classroom. Called the Digital Learning Collaborative, it is built on three things about professional learning: (1) Learning takes time; (2) Learning is a social process; and (3) Learning about technology should be…

From national initiatives that aim to broadly reform education to local efforts to pair children with tutors, corporations are increasingly involved with schools. The idea of business-school relationships is not new. However, the confluence of several powerful currents--corporate advocacy on education policy, cash-strapped public schools,…

A teacher's sense of self-efficacy has been consistently recognized as an important attribute of effective teaching and has been positively correlated to teacher and student outcomes. A number of studies show the impact of teachers with high levels of efficacy. Students of these teachers have outperformed students who had teachers with lower…

Math experts developed Formative Assessment Lessons that teachers can incorporate throughout the year's curriculum. Both tools target the "instructional core." A study by Research for Action (RFA) examining the first year of piloting the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and Math Design Collaborative (MDC) tools (2010-11) found…

For six years, teachers in a study group at a Denver inner-city middle school have enjoyed intellectual stimulation, collegiality, and professional growth. In this article, the authors present the success of the endeavor as proof that teachers are more than happy to stretch themselves when they are given the opportunity to direct their own…