Attempts at school reform and improvement have experienced difficulty creating and implementing feedback systems that energize and sustain change efforts. If the call for reform at all levels of education is to be met, attention must be given to establishing effective feedback mechanisms in educational institutions as they embark on improvement…

Creating a statewide initiative to increase the number of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) in Wyoming, a vast state with just over a half-million people, required many things-- private-public partnerships, the development of an extensive support network for candidates, and a statewide coalition of stakeholders. It also required a…

The use of data-driven practices to improve classroom instruction and student learning is part of the climate of public education accountability today. Response to Intervention (RtI), Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and the use of reading assessments are examples of current initiatives that require teachers to collect and…

Several years ago, in the roots of the author's teaching career, she was consumed with reading research papers, creating innovative lesson plans, and grading. While today these activities still fill her time, now her days are marked more by dismantling and reassembling a wheelchair, programming an augmentative communication device, and carrying…

In 2007 and 2008, three science teachers participated in research "cruises" to the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the coast of Washington. This opportunity was made possible by a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant awarded to Daniela Di Iorio, an oceanographer at the University of Georgia in Athens. The cruises helped renew their…

The processes of developing and the results of testing a master's degree program designed to increase the number and quality of secondary-level earth science teachers are described in this paper. The master's program is intended to serve practicing secondary-level science and math teachers who lack subject-area endorsement in earth science. There…

Two recent studies by Biancarosa et al. and by Saunders et al. have finally demonstrated that "job-embedded, sustained professional development" can significantly improve student achievement. But there's a catch. In both studies, effective professional development (PD) strategies were successful only under certain circumstances or only in some…

Changing lives, changing schools, indeed--any impact the author has had on changing schools in any way is because Ted and Nancy Sizer changed his life and growth as an educator. In this article, he describes how the Sizers have been a part of his development as an educator.

Despite the fact that two of every three students in U.S. schools have reading proficiencies below the level needed to adequately do grade-level work, schools don't make a point of offering either high-quality professional development for kindergarten teachers nor expert tutorial instruction for at-risk kindergartners. This means that most schools…

This report describes the eLearning Fellowship Program at the University of Jos (UNIJOS), first introduced in October 2008 through a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and recently adopted by the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA) Educational Technology Initiative (ETI). The fellowship is a one-year program aimed at…

The purpose of this article is to describe the Quality Educators Academy (QEA), a year-long training for K-8 classroom teachers that was funded by a NC ESEA Title II-A Improving Teacher Quality (NC QUEST) Grant. Key features of the project as well as the design and content of the training contributed to success in recruiting, retaining, and…

"More High School Graduates" is a comprehensive guide for school leaders and government policymakers committed to boosting high school graduation rates. Drawing from his knowledge as an education official and professor, author Ben Levin presents a system to turn around secondary schools that is adaptable for local-, district-, and state-level…

Many believe college instructors resist new teaching practices. In this article, the author develops a hypothesis to understand resistant faculty members, focusing on their likely educational experiences and on insights from psychology. Using Dweck's conception of self-theories and Fischer's conception of dynamic skill-theory, she defends the…

The pairing of books and teachers might seem natural, but it has taken the convergence of at least two trends to move "book study" far up the list for the way teachers spend their professional-development time. For one, many observers are convinced that teachers are obligated to upgrade their classroom skills. For another, the most effective way…

The professoriate, as a whole, is growing older and more experienced; yet institutions often overlook the professional development needs of mid-career and senior faculty. This article, based on a review of the literature and the development of a peer coaching project, examines peer coaching as a professional development opportunity for experienced…