This paper describes how a Tennessee school district is lessening the differences in achievement between inner-city schools and their suburban counterparts by bettering the teaching staffs in the inner-city schools. The story highlights two pillars of the almost-stunning progress achieved by what were once bottom-of-the-barrel schools. One, the…

"Math is language, too," Phyllis and David Whitin (2000) remind everyone in their informative book about reading and writing in the mathematics classroom. This means that students in elementary school math classes are learning two distinct, yet related languages--one of numbers, the other of words. These languages of numbers and words…

Discrete-trial teaching is an instructional method commonly used to teach social and academic skills to children with an autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the indirect effects of discrete-trial teaching on 3 students' stereotypy. Instructions, feedback, modeling, and rehearsal were used to improve 3…

Teacher evaluation systems have tremendous potential in helping teachers grow in their profession. A standards-based teacher evaluation system with a rubric and multiple sources of data has the potential to create a collaborative environment that focuses on the continuous improvement of each teacher in the district. This ultimately leads to an…

Despite the prevalence of professional development in schools and the variability in its implementation, little research has been conducted on how professional development makes its way into the classroom. Even when teachers participate in high-quality professional development, there remains a large and often undocumented variability in how…

The purpose of the case study was to explore the effects of a mentor-coach initiative among second, third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers in an urban junior-secondary school in Antigua and Barbuda. The case study design was appropriate, mainly qualitative, but supported by quantitative data collection methods. Twelve participants shared in two…

Professional development should be a career-long process in which teachers tweak their teaching methodology, practices, and style to meet student needs. Is there a better place to offer professional development opportunities than at "ground zero"? This paper outlines one school's attempt to bring quality professional development to the…

Action research is a process that classroom teachers undertake to reflect upon and improve their own teaching. This study followed an elementary teacher's two-year experience with an action research project in which her middle school students played mathematical-related games. Through the teacher's involvement in this project, her core beliefs…

The new primary strategy in England has raised the profile of foundation subjects, including music, yet many primary school teachers lack skills and confidence in their ability to teach music. This research explores a year-long programme of training across 16 primary schools in England that sought to improve music education. The programme involved…

In 2007, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) began implementing a schoolwide reform called the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) using funds from the federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) and private foundations. Under the TAP model, teachers can earn extra pay and responsibilities through promotion to mentor or master teacher as well as annual…

This is the first examination of exemplary evaluation under a new editorial approach, in which the authors are attempting not only to report how the evaluation was conducted and to explain the rationale for design and implementation but also to examine the conditions, events, or actions that might have contributed to its exemplary status. This…

In this article, the author compares the potential academic and attitudinal gains of a gifted and talented population using different instructional methods. It has been found that instruction for identified high-achieving students must be different than that of general education students. Gifted and talented students cannot maximize learning…

Students' literacy achievement tends to lessen as they progress from elementary to middle level to high school as measured by state and national assessments. To ensure that secondary school students retain their literacy skills, many states and districts have created the position of literacy coach for middle and high schools. Literacy coaches are…

Understanding the interplay among experience, beliefs, and contexts of teaching in preservice and inservice teachers' learning to teach is crucial to improving teacher quality for diverse populations. This study examined the impact of a summer camp English teaching experience in China on the ideas and practice of two White, middle-class female…

One of the largest initiatives using coaching has been Reading First, a federal project whose purpose is to improve reading outcomes for students in low-performing K-3 schools. The present study addressed two questions: (1) Who becomes a reading coach, and what background, skills, and qualifications do coaches bring to their jobs? and (2) How do…