This final report and separate evaluation report describe activities and accomplishments of a 45-month project at Heidelberg College (Ohio), to develop and evaluate an undergraduate course for nonmusic majors which integrates music with a variety of other disciplines. The course's emphasis was on the relationship of music to the larger society.…

A study assessed perceptions of 90 preservice teachers about the quality of their participation in practica experiences in a consultation and curriculum adaptation course collaboratively developed and supervised by a small midwestern university and rural school personnel. Data were collected over three semesters in the form of written responses…

This paper describes a process model for evaluating school-university partnerships. It presents one university's inter-collegial collaboration model for teacher content preparation, explains a process for documenting content and teaching proficiency via an electronic portfolio, and presents the evaluation process used in a multifaceted renewal…

This paper examines the negotiations that occur in a specific educational setting when traditional student placement practices are challenged and redesigned in an effort to better meet the needs of English language learners. The settings for these negotiations is an elementary school where over 90 percent of the students are native English…

Evaluation of a collaborative service delivery model involving a speech-language pathologist and regular teachers of two inner city primary grade classrooms found that, in comparison to standard practice control classrooms, experimental students showed superior gains in receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, beginning sound awareness, and…

The research on effective professional development is consistent across many studies. Researchers Willis Hawley and Linda Valli (Westchester Institute for Human Services Research, n.d.), in their synthesis of the professional development literature, find that high-quality teacher development is as follows: (1) Informed by research on teaching and…

The primary intent of this program evaluation was to determine the degree of inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classes in four elementary and four secondary schools; the similarities and differences in how special education services were offered; and the ways in which students with disabilities were supported in the…

This report is one of nine detailed case studies of small urban high schools that served as the foundation for the Education Resource Strategies (ERS) report "Strategic Designs: Lessons from Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools." These nine schools were dubbed "Leading Edge Schools" because they stand apart from other high…

This paper describes the Vermont Interdependent Services Team Approach (VISTA), a decision-making process for determining the educational support service needs of students with deaf-blindness or other multiple disabilities. The paper also analyzes perceptions of VISTA held by experts in a variety of fields. Specifically, VISTA provides a team…

This study examined whether the Chicago Annenberg Challenge promoted improvement in schools it supported and in student achievement and other outcomes; factors that might explain improvement or lack thereof among Annenberg schools; and what could be learned from the Challenge's experiences. It highlighted the period between 1996-1997 through…

This study evaluated an in-class service model for third graders at risk of school failure in 13 schools. The model included collaborative consultation, cooperative teaching, parent involvement, and strategic and adapted instruction. Significant effects were found on writing scores for students at risk (but not students with learning disabilities)…

When Prince George's County Public Schools created a teacher mentor program, administrators also created a system for evaluating it with clear expectations and goals at the outset. Precisely defining objectives enabled leaders to see their progress, determine what needed to change along the way, and build support for the program.

This presentation addresses three topics: (1) the assessment of professional learning communities in schools; (2) the design and development of professional learning communities in schools; and (3) the effects of professional learning communities in schools. The purpose of this brief document is to share descriptions, processes, and materials…

This report studies career academies to explore students' and teachers' experiences and to contrast them with those of their peers in regular high school environments. Data are from questionnaires, interviews, and observations of Academy and non-Academy students (835 and 686 respectively) and teachers (65 and 403 respectively). Chapter 2 describes…

Stanford's preservice Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) undertook a self-study to investigate how its credential candidates who had previous teaching experience perceived the value of returning for formal preparation. Using a semi-structured protocol, 23 STEP graduates were interviewed from 1999 and 2000, asking them about their teaching…