Previous work has underestimated the interdependent meaning system of beliefs, values, goals, and actions that comprise educator mindsets and integrate content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and dispositions to influence educator professional learning, shape practice, and catalyze school reform. The role of collective educator mindsets…

Purpose: Combining empirical insights from two lesson studies (LSs), this research aims to investigate EnEFL (English as a foreign language) teachers' development in understanding and practical skills regarding the recent national English curriculum reform in China. It also strives to incorporate students' performance and perceptions in the…

Research shows that effective teachers are one of the most important in-school contributors to student learning. To improve low-income minority students' access to effective teaching, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching (IP) initiative in the 2009-2010 school year. The program was…

In 2018, The RAND Corporation and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) published an evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching (IP) initiative, which was designed to improve achievement among low-income minority (LIM) students. The initiative provided support for several reforms that…

Teacher learning, as well as the development and testing of curriculum materials, are key for teaching lessons that bring the goals of the Next Generation Science Standards to life in classrooms. Lesson study is a process that links standards, teacher learning, curriculum materials, and instructional enactment together to facilitate student…

In this article, Joellen Killion highlights the methodology, analysis, findings, and limitations of Ronfeldt, M., Farmer, S., McQueen, K., & Grissom, J. (2015), "Teacher collaboration in instructional teams and student achievement," "American Educational Research Journal," 52(3), 475-514. Using sophisticated statistical…

Innovative educational approaches for schooling require changes to the traditional teacher role towards operating as co-facilitators and co-learners, and working in teacher teams, with considerable professional learning supporting this. Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been acknowledged as highly effective, with their characteristics…

As a major policy focus, teacher evaluation is currently the primary tool promoted to improve teaching quality. But evaluation alone is not enough. What will most transform teaching quality--and the profession--is the creation of a larger system that supports teaching and learning through on-the-job evaluation and professional development, and…

This single case study examines how stakeholders of a local education agency (LEA) understand and implement state turnaround policy for its chronically underperforming schools. While there is ample research on how to improve chronically underperforming schools, that research becomes limited when looking at turnaround implementation actions that…

In Professional Learning Communities, educators collaborated and focused on ways to improve student learning. Teacher practice was one key component for improving student learning and was the focus of this study. Through the use of a collective case study, the researcher examined how teacher practice was affected through the implementation of…

This study draws upon survey and administrative data on over 9,000 teachers in 336 Miami-Dade County public schools over 2 years to investigate the kinds of collaborations that exist in instructional teams across the district and whether these collaborations predict student achievement. While different kinds of teachers and schools report…

This article describes the case of a Japanese junior high school that experienced a turn-around in three years from one of the worst schools to one of the best by utilizing lesson study for learning community (LSLC) as a managerial tool. It will focus on how the principal: (i) established a vision of reform, (ii) organized LSLC to involve the…

Changing teacher practices to improve student learning is a challenge. For teachers' practices to change, faculties within schools must build communities of practice. However, supporting teachers' collaborative learning within a Professional Learning Team can be an elusive challenge. We found through the Instructional Learning Team (ILT) model of…

Recent research has emphasised educating children about positive behaviours to overcome delinquency issues, but there is little clarification of what factors lead to positive behaviours. This study analyses factors that led to children's positive behaviours at a junior high school in Japan, which experienced a dramatic turnaround after…

Using data to improve educational practice in schools has become a popular reform strategy that has grown as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Districts and schools across the United States are under a great deal of pressure to collect and analyze data in hopes of identifying student weaknesses to implement corrective action plans…