Public concern about the effectiveness of education institutions and the accompanying loss of public confidence in the nation's schools has revealed itself in a growing complaint that too many teachers cannot teach. This criticism, while not fully substantiated, has resulted in efforts to establish means for testing teacher competency, seen as one…

The quality of teaching, teachers, and teacher education is examined. An essay appraises current research and public opinion on teacher competence, noting efforts by school districts, teacher education institutions, and professional teacher associations to improve the quality of teachers. Minimum competency examinations, provisional certification,…

This paper on the future of preservice teacher education examines the question of whether a crisis exists today in schools and in teacher education. It is noted that judgments vary, given different perspectives and vantage points for observation, and that a reliable assessment of the current health of schooling and teacher education is difficult.…

Areas of concern related to grievance arbitration in higher education are examined. Selected arbitration awards, court and National Labor Relation Board rulings, and related literature are reviewed, and probable patterns and trends in arbitration are identified. Potential conflicts between collective bargaining and collegiality (self-governance)…

This policy brief draws together research, ideas, and initiatives on improving teaching quality, especially materials from states in the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory's region. It is intended to help policymakers think about which policies might foster improved teacher quality and how to combine policies into an integrated strategy…

This is the second in an annual series of reports that summarize financing trends affecting higher education. The report notes that state appropriations to higher education reached $56.7 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2000, an increase of 7 percent over FY 1999, and the largest ever appropriated by states for higher education. The 1999 legislative…

This report contains the results of the 10th application of the Tennessee Technological University Teacher Evaluation Model and an overview of the previous reports on the model conducted since 1973. Information on graduates of the teacher education program is used for curriculum evaluation and long-range planning. In the first chapter, purposes…

The knowledge and abilities are available today to ensure that teacher preparation programs graduate only potentially superior teachers. Process-product research of the past decade has confirmed many aspects of what superior teachers in prior times knew only intuitively. To aid in the organization of this research the acronym TEMPO can be used. T…

A review of the literature on the transfer of preservice teacher training to the classroom suggests that several definitive factors enhance transfer. A social studies methods course was developed with these factors in mind, and included directed reading activities (DRA) with a text, controversial topic discussion, and inquiry. During the academic…

A study was made to determine the effects of long-term, daily supervision which employed interaction analysis procedures on the teaching behavior and interactions of four elementary school physical education teachers. Repeated, daily, multiple observations were recorded for each subject's teaching behavior and interaction patterns in the movement…

Draws on theory and research from education, counseling, and social work to form some preliminary conclusions regarding how race and ethnicity might affect the supervisory relationship. Calls on educational practitioners to fill the research gap on how diversity affects the process of supervision. (Contains 46 footnotes.) (AUTHOR/WFA)

This pamphlet analyzes the clash between higher education institutions' concerns for preserving the confidentiality of peer faculty review and the need for relevant evidence when a disappointed faculty member suspects that a negative tenure decision is infected with illegal bias. Until recently many institutions decided whether to give tenure to a…

The suspension of Pennsylvania's educational employees due to declining enrollment is examined in this paper. The controversy over whether teacher suspension should be based on seniority or on evaluation criteria has resulted in intervention by the judicial system to establish legal precedents for reduction-in-force policy. Methodology is based on…

This paper summarizes current knowledge from research on teacher effectiveness and discusses the relationship between those findings and educational policy. Few teaching strategies have been studied in different types of environments, so validated knowledge on teacher effectiveness exists for only a few issues. Research findings discussed include:…

The public's reasons for encouraging the competency testing of teachers are discussed, as well as arguments against teacher testing. Testing activities or considered legislation in Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, Virginia, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arizona, Wisconsin, and New York are briefly…