One of the greatest challenges for schools is to identify effective and ineffective teachers in a classroom. Teacher evaluation is an expensive process in both time and resources. It is important that evaluations provide data to improve teaching and learning. Therefore, each evaluation needs to communicate opportunities for growth. This…

This phenomenological case study examined factors such as academic support, administrative support, resource support, and social-emotional support, influencing middle school mathematics and science teacher retention in middle schools with high retention rates in a South Texas public school district as perceived by educators working in the same…

Professional athletes spend hours honing their skills through video analysis; attorneys video themselves practicing opening arguments or coaching clients; plumbers, mechanics, and electricians video their craft to demonstrate their work. It could be argued that teachers' interactions have more long-term impact than any other professional skill,…

Teachers and school district administrators, particularly in the United States, are increasingly turning to teacher virtual professional development (VPD) to stay current and learn new pedagogical knowledge and skills. With more English learners (ELs) entering public school classrooms, it is essential to find effective ways to prepare educators to…

The Texas statewide assessment of academic skills in 1997 indicated that >55 % of the student population failed to master the mathematics objectives set by the test criteria and 42 % of the mathematics teachers at the secondary level in the East Texas region were categorized as underqualified to teach mathematics at that level. The issue of…

This bimonthly newsletter provides information about the progress of the Honor States Grant Program, a governor-led effort to improve college--and work-ready graduation rates. This issue explores efforts by governors and state policymakers to experiment with alternative compensation policies that can improve teacher quality. Compensation…

In an initiative designed to help teachers meet the Highly Qualified Teacher requirement of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the Arlington Independent School District (AISD) in Arlington, Texas has partnered with Texas Woman's University (TWU) to offer a master's degree in reading to any teachers working in Title I schools. This initiative is…

For five years running, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has tracked states' teacher policies, preparing a detailed and thorough compendium of teacher policy in the United States on topics related to teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal. The "2011 State…

We studied the outcome of a professional development opportunity that consisted of 2-week-long resident institutes for teams consisting of a secondary science teacher and two students. The science content of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded professional development institute was monarch butterfly ecology. The first institute took place…