Examines perceived obstacles encountered by collaborating teachers, administrators, and researchers in raising expectations for ninth graders at risk for failure in an inner-city high school. Findings illustrate that preventive action must move beyond the teacher-student dyad to include the context of expectations for students, teachers, and…

Describes the position of Specialist in Continuing Education (SCE) developed by the Cooperative Educational Research Laboratory, Inc. The SCE conducts seminars with small groups of teachers engaged in self-assessment and professional growth. Seminars focus on teachers finding their own solutions to their problems and on professional…

Reports a study that assessed how a group of teachers used curriculum knowledge when untracking the high school curriculum in heterogeneously grouped classes; and how teachers differentiated curriculum and instruction in that context. Observation and interview data emphasized the important role of participatory and informed teacher engagement in…

Examines how classroom teachers have been prepared to teach students with disabilities and presents a reconceptualized approach to preparing educators to meet the needs of special students through educational partnerships. The article describes such an approach at the University of Utah's Graduate School of Education. (SM)

Two vignettes illustrate the new roles and responsibilities of primary grade and high school teachers under the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Effects of the KERA on the changing needs and roles of teachers engaged in systemic reform are discussed. Classroom practice is becoming more activity centered. (SLD)

The present paper describes a project that emphasized the use of case-writing by teachers engaged in an educational innovation. The aims of the paper are threefold: to provide a somewhat detailed description of the case-writing process, to explicate the varied functions of cases and case-writing by teachers, and to discuss an important feature of…

This book presents the oral histories of one male and seven female retired teachers who began their careers during the 1920s and 1930s in one-room schools in the Texas hill country. These teachers continued to teach until after the desegregation of public schools in the 1960s. The married black couple included began teaching in rural Texas in 1931…

The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) is the new Massachusetts state assessment program that is being implemented in response to state education reform legislation. The paper describes the early efforts of the state Department of Education (MDOE), its prime contractor for development of the MCAS (Advanced Systems in Measurement…

This essay posits a problem of "fit" between five streams of reform (subject matter teaching, diverse student populations, uses of student assessment, social organization of schooling, and professionalization of teaching), and prevailing configurations of teachers' professional development. It argues that the dominant…

This paper reviews literature on teaching, learning, and change, focusing on change as a system for self-renewal and examining change in terms of long-term purposes, the risk of failure, self understanding, productive relationships, habits of thinking, and curiosity. The paper presents results from a synthesis of two qualitative case studies of…

Due to rapid social changes, the government of the Republic of China instituted in 1979 the "Teacher Education Statute," which incorporated the training of both elementary and secondary school teachers. This was followed by legislation in the form of bylaws that prescribed the ways and means of the program's implementation. Revision of…

Tabular procedures for analyzing open-ended responses were used to study a school district's educational reform program. Responses of a rural Arizona Career Ladder (CL) school district's teachers and administrators to three pairs of open-ended questions contained in the 1989 Perception Assessment Scale survey comprised the data base for the…

One of four articles in the fourth section, "Aspects of Evaluation of PDS," this article reports the evaluation of the Indiana State University Professional Development School program at the end of three years of operation. Results showed that elementary and secondary schools differed significantly as collaborators, and that elementary…

Provides a framework for observing and supporting the development of students as constructivist teachers, especially during their field placements as student teachers. The instructional shift to a constructivist approach is described, and guiding principles and possible indicators of the constructivist model are presented. (SLD)

Investigates the impact of involvement with professional development schools (PDS's) on how colleges prepare teachers, following several partnerships longitudinally. The paper examines how changes in teacher education have resulted from PDS involvement, discusses the question of institutionalization of PDSs, and describes the potential for PDSs to…