Every school district has policies and procedures for evaluating teachers that are shaped by state law and local collective bargaining agreements. As a result of No Child Left Behind and other accountability legislation many states modified requirements about the frequency of evaluation and now require the use of student achievement data as one…

In large numbers of elementary and secondary schools across the United States teachers are being called upon to provide support to colleagues through a process called "instructional coaching." Despite widespread implementation of this role, resulting in part from federal initiatives, there is little consensus regarding its operational…

The combination of federal exigency for Highly Qualified Teachers in every classroom (No Child Left Behind, 2001) and focus on teacher accountability has created a plethora of routes to teacher certification and continuing education. This urgent situation has placed a burden on schools of education to approach teacher education in creative and…

By looking at teacher collaborative structures in an urban public elementary school, this article demonstrates how, in the face of top-down school decisions under the pressures of high-stakes testing and assessment-driven curriculum, teachers can find the power and freedom for creative and effective pedagogy to flourish. We describe how teachers…

This book presents evidence-based practices for integrating language and literacy knowledge to enhance children's learning in today's standards-based classrooms. While grounded in theory and research, the book focuses on day-to-day concerns in instruction and intervention. Identified are models for effective collaboration among speech-language…

In order to meet the goals of No Child Left Behind, standardized testing is preeminent as the sole indicator determining whether states all across America demonstrate adequate yearly progress regarding the improvement of student achievement in literacy education. This book will help teachers and parents raise children's scores on standardized…

Teacher retention is a critical problem in public education (Ingersoll, 2002), demanding collaboration between universities and local public school systems. Using veteran teacher mentors employed in a public school system to facilitate ongoing monthly support groups, communities of beginning teachers were formed, embedded within the public schools…