In this article, the authors emphasize the role of elementary social studies teachers as citizen activists and reformers. The authors call upon all teachers to become AGENTS for change in order to strengthen the role of social studies in elementary schools, to guarantee that all students have an equitable opportunity to learn social studies, and…

In a three-part study we explored implications for enhancing the role of "Corrective Reading" ("CR") in systemic school reform relating to teacher judgments of the high levels of student academic performance required by "CR" tasks in contrast to inappropriate instructional perspectives applied by teachers regarding…

In this article, the author describes the importance of technology in distance learning for elementary education. Imagine having museums and expert teachers available at one's request. In their Rural Hall, North Carolina, elementary school, teachers and students just walk down the hall to the distance learning classroom and connect in a few…

In this study, we explored dimensions of a teacher?s experience with formal language study, time spent abroad, and levels of bilingualism as factors that relate to their personal teaching efficacy beliefs using a purposeful sample of teachers from North and South Carolina working with English Language Learners in the mainstream classroom. Our…

Educating students from linguistically diverse backgrounds has historically been the domain of the ESL teacher. However, new migration patterns and changing student demographics force the mainstream teacher into a new role: the language and content teacher. In order to embrace this new role, educators must implement instructional strategies…

In this article, the author, a second grade teacher at Children's Community School in Huntersville, North Carolina, describes the "Popsicle Social" that is held every year before the first day of school. Over the summer, each class has parents, teachers and students come together in a community park to socialize, make new friends and of…

The authors investigated the impact of professional development programs for English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers on their classroom practice and on the way that teacher efficacy and organizational support at the school level relate by interacting with years of teaching experience. The authors collected data by using questionnaires…

Governor Mike Easley signed into law House Bill 1151 in July 2006, requiring schools to develop a plan to provide at least five hours of duty-free instructional planning time per week and a daily duty-free lunch period for every teacher. Acknowledging the difficulties in creating school schedules that incorporate sufficient non-instructional…

With the support of the Education Cabinet, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation launched the Professional Development Initiative in early 2004. The Initiative's Implementation Work Group focused on four key areas to enhance North Carolina's system of professional development for K-12 teachers. Those areas were: (1) Professional Development Online…

The career paths of a sample of 5,100 White North Carolina teachers were analyzed using hazards modeling. Subject specialties, lower salaries, and National Teacher Examination scores were important predictors of secondary teacher turnover. Elementary school teachers were less likely to leave overall and more likely to return to teaching. (SK)

May 17, 2004 marked the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in the historic school desegregation case, "Oliver L. Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka (KS) et al." After concluding a survey of elementary school teachers about the struggle for school desegregation in the 1950s and 60s, this author found that, in most…

This report focuses on results from teacher and principal questionnaires administered in each of the schools included in the 1974 third-grade state assessment program. According to the introduction, the program began a three-year cycle of assessment in grades 3, 6, and 9 and was designed to collect a broad base of information on educational needs…

Updated information is provided on teacher salaries for 1995-96 and estimated increases for the 1996-97 school year in the 15 states belonging to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). Pay raises for 1996-97 are estimated as ranging from 1.75 percent in Virginia to 6 percent in Georgia. Especially noted are South Carolina's continuing…

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 Teacher…

Most studies that have fueled alarm over the attrition and mobility rates of high-quality teachers have relied on proxy indicators of teacher quality, which recent research finds to be only weakly correlated with value-added measures of teachers' performance. We examine attrition and mobility of teachers using teacher value-added measures for…