This qualitative, longitudinal study examines the perspectives on professional development of a group of exemplary, new secondary teachers of English Language Arts and Spanish (n = 4). This study explores the teachers' development through the lens of the "embodied understanding of practice" (EUP), a novel theoretical framework of…

Early childhood education teachers have been challenged with the demands for accountability in literacy and English language development, as well as kindergarten readiness skills of preschool children. Researchers have studied professional learning communities (PLCs) as a framework for professional development and student achievement. However, few…

Increasing student achievement is at the forefront of the school reform movement. Today's educators are called upon to raise academic standards to the highest level in history with common core standards that align with international benchmarks. One of the most rapidly-growing improvement efforts in today's schools is the development of…

This article explores experiences that led individuals to become teacher leaders advocating for under-served students in urban schools. Cohort members in an urban teacher leadership master's degree programme engaged in systematic critical reflection about becoming leaders for equity, describing the influences of their families and communities,…

In this article, the role that formal leaders play in helping distributed leadership take root and flourish in schools is explored. The focus of the study is an urban middle school, one of six cases in a larger three-year investigation of distributed leadership in two mid-Atlantic states. Using interview and document-based data, the authors…

A current trend in education is that small teacher groups, called professional learning communities (PLC), are being advocated as a tool to help teachers reach struggling students. Educators planning to use PLC as an intervention strategy can benefit from research-based information about PLC best practices. This multiple case study addressed the…

This article examines and critiques the leadership capacity of department leaders in a high school and attempts to gain a deeper understanding of how department leaders perceive their role as teacher leaders, making a distinction between what an individual department leader does in his or her position and teacher leadership as a form of continuous…

Most work on professional learning opportunities in education focuses on classroom teachers and school principals. In this paper the authors take a broader look at school leaders' opportunities to learn from a distributed perspective. Using one mid-sized urban school district as their case, they examine the opportunities to learn (OTL) of school…

The purpose of this study was to identify and to explore programs related to school leadership in two California charter schools. Four research questions guided this study: (a) What policies, programs, and processes are used to improve teacher and administrative leadership (school leadership) in charter schools? (b) How are resources used to…

This article examines the use of interim assessments in elementary schools in the School District of Philadelphia. The article reports on the qualitative component of a multimethod study about the use of interim assessments in Philadelphia. The study used an organizational learning framework to explore how schools can best develop the capacity to…

This study examines four case studies of mentors of new teachers who assumed leadership of teacher induction programmes. Using cycles of action research conducted in a teacher induction leadership network, the case-study authors inquired into the features of the mentor curriculum. Cross-case analyses suggest the need for three elements of mentor…

Schools are required to meet a range of students' learning needs and effective school leadership is needed for the implementation of pedagogical practices responsive to the challenges of increasing student diversity and academic accountability. Literature on differentiated instruction and its constituent elements suggests differentiation results…

This research paper is about the role of the principal in enabling teacher leadership for pedagogical innovations and school improvement studied in two Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievements in Schools (IDEAS) schools in Singapore and Australia over a 3-year period from 2005 to 2007. The research reported is based on the developing…

Innovative uses of technology to support teacher learning are emerging through professional learning communities that leverage social networking technologies. The value of an online community for educators lies in the rich and open exchange of ideas, experiences, and resources where educators feel both respected and supported. Yet among the most…

The research literature suggests that the existence of trust and strong working relationships between staff are precursors for school improvement (Bryk & Schneider, 2003). Without strong social relations or feelings of trust between school leaders and faculty, school improvement efforts can fail. Within high schools, principals have a critical…