Three early childhood teacher educators from different institutions engaged in a collaborative self-study to explore the role of empathy in preservice teacher professional development. The two-fold purpose of the study was to: (1) develop and refine their practices to build teacher candidates' empathy in their interactions with children, families,…

Teachers are often asked to fill out progress reports that include check marks indicating if a child has met certain criteria. While this document offers a superficial glance at knowing a child, it is often the only kind of "assessment" a parent receives. The authors, a daycare teacher and a parent of Rosa, "the mean girl" in…

This year's Action Guide examines the need for new ways of measuring student success. Academic test scores are just one method of measuring student progress, offering an incomplete picture of student learning and growth. Educators and state leaders recognize that serving all students well requires focusing on their individual needs, including…

All educational stakeholders benefit when families and school staff have trusting partnerships as they work together to achieve mutual goals. Eleven focus groups were conducted with parents of children with and without disabilities in six schools, which had been selected as knowledge development sites by the Schoolwide Integrated Framework for…

In this article the authors explore the role of critical hope as an essential quality in teachers' preparation to teach English Language Learners (ELLs) in the era of No Child Left Behind. The authors found that high stakes testing with inappropriate measures combined with teachers' lack of preparation to teach ELLs resulted in a downward spiral…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Online Testing, Version 1.0: Oregon's Adaptive Computer-Based Accountability Test Offers a Peek at a Brave New Future (Robert Rothman); (2) Beyond…

This report outlines the overall design and implementation of Teacher Support Teams (TSTs), a concept developed under the auspices of the Massachusetts Board of Education to help administrators, teachers, and other school personnel and parents to identify at-risk students in regular education. TSTs, developed at individual schools and…

This pamphlet provides an overview of current research on home-school collaboration and strategies that schools can use to develop partnerships with their students' parents or guardians. An introduction lists the benefits of increasing parent involvement (higher grades and test scores, long-term academic achievement, positive attitudes and…

Parents and professionals in rural Massachusetts collaborated on a project designed to integrate children with behaviors associated with autism and pervasive developmental disorders into a community elementary school. This paper describes implementation of program features for 11 autistic children. Features of the program include family and…

Two mothers of pupils in the Holyoke School System revitalized flagging parent involvement efforts with a program, the City-Wide Parent Participation Council, that includes the following strategies: (1) membership, voting, and elections; (2) scheduling; (3) minority outreach; (4) communications staff and office; (5) publicity; and (6) special…