Effective professional development (PD) is crucial for enhancing teacher instruction and student achievement. This Spotlight explores innovative approaches to PD that prioritize teacher needs and foster meaningful learning experiences. From hybrid PD models to teacher-led initiatives and on-demand online courses, these articles offer valuable…

For much of the last two decades, beginning with the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002, the top political leaders have shown concern about children stuck in failing public schools. NCLB required districts to do something -- not enough, but something -- about those schools. Millions of children still languish in low-performing schools,…

The nation's K-12 schools are faced with critical challenges: elevating academic achievement, recruiting high-caliber teachers, engaging parental involvement and at-risk students. The national and global economic crisis has significantly compounded these challenges (Fullan, 2002; McEwan, 2003; Kowalski, 2008). School leaders are mandated by…

Beverly Hall has been superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools since 1999. Before coming to Atlanta, Hall was state district superintendent of Newark Public Schools, deputy chancellor for instruction of New York City Public Schools, superintendent of Community School District 27 in New York City, and a principal in Brooklyn. Hall chairs Harvard…

Although practitioners have been asked to make fundamental shifts in their beliefs about reaching all students, the structures of high schools to support that work have not changed appreciably. Teachers teach in isolation, departmental silos lack curricular and instructional coherence across core subject areas, and few teachers share students in…

The South is part of a dramatic education reform movement championed by a group of progressive governors and motivated by a desire to improve the region's economic future by bettering the education of its work force. Most southern states have significantly raised certification standards, teacher salaries, and per pupil expenditure. Georgia's…

The document contains the proceedings of a Statewide conference on enhancing the role of vocational education administrators as change agents. Conference topics included: "How Administrators Can Overcome Barriers to Educational Change," Henry M. Brickell; "Why Educational Innovations Fail and How They can be More Effectively…

Explains the complexities of promoting school change and how they can be minimized through the effective use of facilitators. Six complexities of school change are examined based on the experiences of Georgia's League of Professional Schools. Also discussed is the question of who should facilitate. (GLR)

To develop a dissemination strategy for optimal impact on the educational community and to establish a working relationship with State Education Agencies (SEA's), Research for Better Schools (RBS), in 1971, formed a nationwide network of schools as a proving ground for Individually Prescribed Instruction (IPI). The network includes a partnership…