This casebook provides candid descriptions of teachers who enter the profession with no previous teacher preparation. The cases describe how a group of novice teachers faced the problems of transforming content knowledge into accessable units of instruction for teenagers in inner-city schools. The vignettes are grouped according to specific kinds…

Describing the physical, social, psychological, and human context of middle and secondary schools, this book is designed to help new teachers negotiate the environment of the schools in which they find themselves. The book is intended for first-year or second-year teachers, education majors in their final year of preparation, "second…

Three major purposes have been proposed for Professional Development Schools: (1) to improve education of prospective and practicing teachers; (2) to strengthen knowledge and practice in teaching; and (3) to strengthen the profession of teaching by serving as models of promising and productive structural relations. At present there is neither a…

This digest examines the knowledge base for teaching, noting that many critical decisions about educational structure, policy, and assessment rely on it. The professionalization of teaching depends on showing that teaching requires mastery of a specialized body of knowledge that is applied ethically. Serious deliberation is needed in the…

This digest is a brief summary of a longer monograph of the same title on the importance of understanding faculty socialization as a cultural process in the context of the current changes urged on higher education. A section on how faculty socialization is conceptualized adopts a view of culture in which culture shapes and is shaped by social…

Teacher leaders often teach full- or part-time while assuming leadership responsibilities. Also, they have often learned new roles just by doing the tasks demanded by those roles. A more systematic approach to helping teachers develop the requisite skills for assuming leadership roles (e.g. department chairs, team and grade leaders, and curriculum…

Principals and teachers are becoming frustrated with conventional evaluation practices typically used to determine teacher effectiveness and, thus, tenure and promotion. This Digest explains that as new performance standards are being developed, there are reconfigured assessment designs requiring an array of reflective, analytic skills. Creation…

This monograph examines the importance of understanding faculty socialization as a cultural process in the context of the current changes urged on higher education. An opening section explores the links between culture and commitment and the importance of understanding such links in light of faculty diversity and other challenges. A second section…

This report reviews the research and literature on the improvement of college teaching through use of a model that stresses a supportive teaching culture and helps motivate individual faculty members to improve their teaching by utilizing a variety of sources of informative feedback. The sources include: colleagues and consultants, department…

The National Partnership for Excellence in Education and Accountability in Teaching (NPEAT) helps place improvement of teaching at the center of reform efforts, addressing two problems that impede the development of systemic reforms to improve teaching quality: (1) absence of agreement about effective strategies for improving teaching among those…

Intended primarily for preservice and beginning teachers, this handbook can also be used by inservice teachers, school administrators, and college professors as an aid in helping new teachers meet the challenges of the opening days of the school year. The handbook begins with instructions for getting acquainted with available instructional…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) amends and changes programs from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Although the main component of this bill is Title I, it also highlights teacher education quality. NCLB was accompanied, for fiscal year 2002, by the largest increase ever in federal education aid, targeting federal resources to support…

The recruitment, selection, induction, and retention of capable teachers are interrelated processes involving schools' personnel, policies, and organization. This report explores issues surrounding these processes and discusses methods to improve districts' programs. Part I, "Recruiting Teachers," describes the competition for capable…

Professional teacher educators recognize that the body of knowledge about teaching and learning is today more substantive, consistent, and authoritative than ever before. It should also be acknowledged, however, that too little of that knowledge is incorporated into the preservice education of teachers. This volume, containing 12 papers presented…

A survey of the literature on the issues and problems related to the preparation and survival of black public school teachers in the United States resulted in findings and recommendations in five areas. The first area considers literature on the underrepresentation of black teachers in public schools, studies on pupil/teacher ratios, expanded…