The excellence of a school lies in the way it directs itself--particularly its professional staff--to improve performance. To meet its obligation to be ever self-improving, the faculty should focus on studying students, creating tailored learning experiences, evaluating long-term school effects, and encouraging diversity. (PGD)

The task of the supervisor is to help the reading teacher learn and use tactics and strategies for improved questioning of students. (Author)

By examining the role of the teacher in Japanese schools, we can discover directions to follow and to avoid in developing the teaching profession in our own country. (Author/TE)

John Goodlad suggests that individual schools should be encouraged to establish their own priorities for improvement and should be supported by their districts and by networks of schools with similar concerns. He further suggests that subject area teaching should concentrate on broad concepts rather than on unlimited, discrete topics. (PGD)

The Mastery in Learning Project is helping teachers and administrators overcome the isolation of their traditional roles to become professional collaborators. (Author/TE)

Describes how the Allentown, Pennsylvania, public school district uses district-wide final examinations (along with some class-specific test items designed by teachers) to assess secondary school programs, provide "feedback" to teachers, and evaluate student mastery of learning objectives. (MCG)

The president of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching applauds the push for educational excellence but believes local school personnel are too rarely considered in the reform process. He suggests ways of granting teachers and principals the support and recognition they need to participate effectively in educational improvement.…

The rewards and sanctions accompanying performance-based pay and promotion programs will not be valued or given credibility as long as teacher evaluations are not approached professionally. The effect of treating teachers as bureaucrats or professionals, the limits of bureaucratic evaluation, and the demands of professional evaluation are…

We are now accumulating the knowledge base necessary for teaching to become a true profession, and we have the possibility within reach to work together to attain that stature. This editorial essay previews the articles that focus on this theme in this issue of "Educational Leadership." (TE)

In Rochester, New York, the Teachers Association and the school distict have an unusual contract that mandates new roles and responsibilities for classroom teachers as well as new levels of reimbursement. Principals and central office staff have new roles as facilitators and look forward to the challenges and rewards of shared governance. (TE)

Teachers who served as advisers to help other teachers improve their classroom techniques in the Marin County (California) Office of Education's Teacher Advisor Project found six principles affecting successful, nonthreatening relationships: sharing common language, focusing on key concerns, gathering hard evidence, interacting fully, acting…

Draws parallels between a supervisor helping troubled teachers and a teacher helping troubled students, using a fictionalized example. Recommends that supervisors use both professional methods and personal relationships to help teachers become more effective. (MCG)

The Reggio Emilia approach to education reveals new ways for promoting children's academic learning; offers documentation as a tool for studying, sharing, and planning children's education experiences; and provokes a new way to think about the role of the teacher. (Contains 17 references.) (MLF)

Research suggests ways administrators and staff developers can help teachers with the important task of organizing and managing classrooms. (Author)

Describes how a high school teacher successfuly organized, funded, and involved students and community members in an archaeological dig under the school's front lawn. (IW)