Indonesian primary school children are taught to memorize science facts and learn only routine skills. School science lessons focus on low-order thinking as required on the frequent district formative tests and a national year six examination. Because of this emphasis on testing, students show little interest in asking questions about everyday…

In addition to student assessment, many educators are now using portfolios to document and evaluate their own growth and development and to showcase the learning taking place in their classroom. This guide, in workbook format, explains why portfolios are essential to educators' professional development, outlines a professional development plan,…

Offers 12 rules for using feedback to effect change and describes a system for stimulating change in teaching behavior in a school setting. (Author/IRT)

A major lesson of the past decade's education reform measures and school improvement efforts is that educational change of almost any stripe is a problem of the smallest unit. It is a problem that turns on the incentives, attitudes, abilities, and responses of those ultimately responsible for seeing that initiatives for improvement translate into…

This report reviews the national educational reform movement of the 1980's, with particular attention directed to seven states: California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington. The first chapter provides background information on the educational reform movement. The second chapter focuses on the reform activities…

The results of a 1982 survey indicated that teachers seeking computer literacy were just as unlikely to have had computer experience as were teachers in general, and were even less likely to feel knowledgeable about computers, but were much more likely to come from districts where computer use by teachers received broad institutional support. This…

This sourcebook contains a collection of articles on educational topics and is designed to be used as a resource for inservice teacher programs at the secondary level. The first section is devoted to curriculum theory and contains writings on the theoretical underpinnings and relevant background for practical work with students. Inservice is the…

A group of 37 college and university presidents recommended more cooperation between colleges and schools and improved training for teachers. The goal of the presidents meeting was to contemplate their role in the school-reform movement. Greater emphasis, it was suggested, must be placed on the value of teaching. (MLW)

Educational reform could be stunted if questionable staffing practices (emergency certificates, misassignment of teachers, and alternative routes to certification) continue and become more prevalent due to the predicted teacher shortages. Outlines the National Education Association's six-point program and the American Federation of Teacher's…

Negative consequences of minimum competency testing for teacher candidates include the waste of human potential resulting from the disproportionately high failure rate of minority teacher candidates and the danger of lessening the pressure for needed curriculum reforms. This essay urges seeking alternative methods for improving the quality of…

The current high-stakes accountability environment brought on by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) places great pressure on school districts to demonstrate success by meeting yearly progress goals for student achievement and eventually demonstrating that all students achieve at high standards. In particular, many urban school…

This book helps school administrators redesign the professional development model to better reflect the relevant issues and realities of today's schools. Using the metaphor of architecture, the book outlines innovative ways to create and implement such a transformation and highlights the rationale behind why these changes are so crucial. It also…

This report looks at and identifies emerging trends in the roles that teacher unions play in educational reform and improving the quality of teaching. A description of the efforts of six teacher unions to improve teacher quality within the context of the current systemic reform movement shows a range and depth of union initiatives beyond what is…

This article describes teacher change using the backdrop of a standards-based reform mathematics curriculum for middle grades and direct quotes from teachers and math support coordinators involved in the implementation over the last five years. Each of the sixteen participants had at least one year of experience teaching or supervising the…