Policymakers are recognizing that Pennsylvania has fallen behind in providing equitable access to high quality early childhood education. Governor Tom Wolf ran on a campaign promise of universal pre-k access and proposed an unprecedented budget increase for early childhood programs in 2016. In Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney has made pre-k a…

Policymakers want to see evidence that coaching makes a difference for teachers and students. To this group, making a difference means improving performance on standardized tests. In the current fiscal climate, leaders want to know not only that their investments are based on firm grounds theoretically, but also that instructional coaching works.…

The field of teacher preparation is falling short of its most important responsibility: ensuring that the teachers we train are ready to do the job. For more than a decade,TNTP preparation programs produced teachers who were no more or less effective than teachers from any other program-- some were great, some were poor, most were about average.…

In a school district context where a well-developed district-wide PDS partnership had been in operation for more than 15 years, a team of instructional coaches was formed of district teachers who left their classrooms for two to four years under the leadership of a curriculum coordinator. In this article, members of the coaching team offer…

The role of the building principal is a demanding responsibility. Increasing expectations from various stakeholders make a formidable job feel overwhelming to many. In an effort to help principals in their role as building leader, several support programs have been acknowledged as useful aids to assist them. Over time, literature has recognized…

It has been three years since Race to the Top grant-winning states piloted new teacher evaluation systems and many of them have made considerable progress, yet according to media coverage and a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published in April 2015, struggles remain and most grantees have asked to extend the timetables for…

Learning how to give effective feedback can be a difficult task for teacher leaders. This is especially true for what is called "hard feedback"--that is, feedback that challenges the teacher's practice and therefore may cause some level of professional discomfort. Educators at the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Learning have…

The introduction of computers and related educational technologies into the classrooms in the late 1970s came with the expectation that technology would transform teaching and learning by improving teaching conditions, enhancing classroom management, individualizing learning, and resulting in a pedagogical shift (Salomon & Perkins, 1996).…

This study looks deeply inside 17 schools that stand at the vanguard of the current revolution in teaching. This new National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) report reveals the substantive ways in which these schools are providing their teachers with more time to reflect on, develop, and hone their craft, by very explicitly leveraging an…

In the fall of 2007--aware that the continuing professional development of teachers is paramount to quality education--John Baird, head of Westtown School (Pennsylvania), asked the faculty Professional Development Committee (PDC), consisting of faculty representatives from all three divisions of the school, to design a "professional growth…

Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRISs) commonly offer on-site technical assistance (TA) and coaching to help early care and education settings achieve quality improvements and a higher QRIS rating. In surveys of administrators overseeing statewide QRISs, almost all states reported the use of on-site TA and coaching in both center-based and…

The "Race to the Top" competitive grant program initiated a wave of teacher evaluation reform, which scholars and policymakers have long identified as critical to improving teacher quality and student performance. State boards of education (SBEs) and state education agencies (SEAs) took different approaches to these reforms, and as a…

In today's workplace, the ability to solve complex problems, think critically, and engage in continuous, self-directed learning is essential. Recognizing that providing the kind of education that fosters such abilities necessitated considerable change in its schools, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's Office of Catholic Education developed a…

Literacy coaches provide job-embedded professional development for teachers, and the number of literacy coaches in elementary schools is increasing. Although literacy coaching offers promise in terms of improving teacher practice and student achievement, guidance is needed regarding the qualifications, activities, and roles of literacy coaches.…

Wouldn't it be great if all your teachers were as good as your best? Teaching is often an isolated profession in which teachers work behind closed doors, doing their own thing. Peer coaching is a collaborative, ongoing process that can increase the effectiveness of all your teachers. This "Focus On" is designed to lead a faculty into the…