A superintendent reviews five steps for developing and implementing "effective schools" projects. (MD)

Evidence is offered about the effectiveness of old as well as new approaches to instruction, plus a preview of likely approaches in the future. It is noted that institutions are adopting new approaches to instruction on an unprecedented scale. (Editor/LBH)

In this monograph, the authors describe Connecticut's long-term efforts to implement a comprehensive set of teaching quality policies to support improved student learning. The authors begin by describing the 15-year evolution of policies designed to recruit, prepare, and support teachers, while also creating greater accountability for the…

Professional development is viewed from several perspectives--time, funding, planning, and student outcomes--and includes both an urban and a rural story. This issue provides a special pullout section designed as a checklist to help guide professional development planning activities. The following articles are included: "Perspectives on…

Organizational change in educational systems' research has provided valuable lessons that address the improvement of schools. School-improvement programs specifically target schools with underachieving and high-poverty populations of students with the intention of improving educational inequities. While these and other current reform initiatives…

One of our eight national education goals is that by the year 2000, U.S. students will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study results have shown that we are far away from attaining this goal. This article highlights the need to reform a teacher preparation program in…

Rural school districts face unique challenges in cultivating a teaching force that possesses subject-matter expertise, a willingness to undertake difficult professional work at the local level, and attentiveness to rural practices and cultures. At the same time, many rural schools harbor significant strengths that districts might draw upon to…

Used surveys, interviews, site visits, and achievement data to examine one district's development of school-based communities of instructional practice to improve teaching and increase achievement. Team-based teachers felt more involved in school-related decisions and reported higher levels of collaboration with peers than non-team-based teachers.…

It is important to dispel myths that pervade current professional-development planning and establish and follow specific guidelines for effectively using additional professional-development time. The paper dispels three major myths that diminish the effectiveness of professional-development planning and offers four guidelines for ensuring wise use…

Suggests that one of the reasons that schools are not as successful supporting the literacy development of Latina/o students is that school literacy, whether it be in Spanish or English, envisions forms of literacy that these students do not recognize. Notes that low academic achievement for many Latina/o students is not due to a lack of…

This article examines a premise underlying teacher accountability policies, namely, that annual student learning gains can be attributed to individual teachers. After analyzing data collected in fourth- and fifth-grade reading and mathematics classes in 18 schools, the authors identify forms of instructional design that rely on multiple teachers.…

With the advent of No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools are being held accountable for measurable increases in student academic achievement as evidenced by performance on standardized tests. This movement has significant implications for the professional development of teachers who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that their…

In an initiative designed to help teachers meet the Highly Qualified Teacher requirement of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the Arlington Independent School District (AISD) in Arlington, Texas has partnered with Texas Woman's University (TWU) to offer a master's degree in reading to any teachers working in Title I schools. This initiative is…

How will you know if your state is making progress toward having a qualified teacher in every classroom? One indicator of progress in Goals for Education relates to licensure and certification: "Licensure and certification focus on performance and lead to sufficient numbers of teachers with content knowledge and proven teaching skills to improve…

In fall 2002, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced 24 major grants to establish Mathematics and Science Education Partnership (MSP) programs across the U.S. The overall program objective of these grants is to "increase the capacity of preK-12 educational systems and institutions of higher education to provide the requisites for …