This paper outlines staff development programs offered by the teacher education faculty at Cardinal Stritch College (Wisconsin) to 26 districts from CESA 7 over 5 years. More than 850 administrators, staff, parents, board members, teachers, and students have participated. After assessing district and school needs through ongoing evaluation,…

Recommendations of five reports for improving American public elementary and secondary education are listed in a format enabling comparisons to be made with respect to 11 major categories and numerous subcategories. Included are recommendations of the reports from the National Commission on Excellence in Education, the Twentieth Century Fund, the…

Vocational teachers and trainers in France belong to four groups: teaching personnel employed by the Ministry of Education, teaching personnel in private technical education, teaching personnel in educational establishments accountable to other ministers, and trainers in other bodies (apprenticeship training centers and company training centers).…

The reactions of social studies educators to "A Nation at Risk," the report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education that examined the quality of education in the United States, are discussed. The survey was an informal one that asked educators, mainly teachers and professors, what their reactions were to the report in…

Proposals for reform in teacher education from major organizations are reviewed, summarized, and compared in this document. Concise analyses are presented of: (1) The Need for Quality (Southern Regional Education Board, 1981); (2) "Educating a Profession: Profile of a Beginning Teacher" (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education…

To ascertain the degree of utilization of bilingual programs and the concerns and questions teachers may have about their implementation, the Division of Bilingual and International Education of the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory conducted a study which had four objectives relating to implementation of bilingual education programs in…

This collection of papers focuses on what is known and practiced in professional development. Part 1, "The Purposes of Professional Development," includes (1) "Educational Purposes and Teacher Development" (Maxine Greene); (2) "Going Public: The Imperative of Public Education in the 21st Century" (Carl D. Glickman and…

This volume consists of four issues that present best practices, current research on adult learning and literacy, and how research is used. Issue 1(A) on adult multiple intelligences has seven articles: "MI (Multiple Intelligences), the GED (General Educational Development), and Me (Martha Jean); "Understanding Multiple Intelligences:…

Illinois, in partnership with the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, is transforming its teacher preparation and training sequence into a strong teacher development system that will result in improved teacher recruitment, preparation, induction, certification, professional development, and retirement. This paper outlines the…

Describes efforts to help teachers learn to use new math and reading assessments in their classrooms, highlighting characteristics of professional development that successfully foster change in teachers' ideas and practice. After describing a multi-year staff development/research project on assessment, the paper discusses factors that support and…

Reports recent research into how English secondary teachers construct and develop notions of professionalism, noting how this is affected by changes in their working lives and recent educational reform. Teacher interviews indicated that local contexts are influential in shaping their sense of professionalism and that this is an important source of…

Examines recent policy changes in teacher education and how they impact on the recruitment and retention of minority students. Focuses on the conflicting concerns for both accountability and equal educational opportunity. (FMW)

This study of five bilingual special education teachers identified three factors affecting attempts to change instructional practices: (1) a positive correlation between special education training and a reductionist approach; (2) relationship between changing both instructional practices and beliefs; and (3) the importance of including fellow…

Discusses the relationship between systemic educational reform policy instruments and their effect on changing and improving teaching practice. The author argues that the system in systemic reform is not well matched with the nature of instruction because of the lack of analysis being done on how instructional practice is constituted or how it…

Examines the nature of instructional capacity and its key components, and discusses the issues of improving human capital, quantity and quality of teaching resources, instructional cultures, and performance. A table is presented providing examples of capacity-building strategies at three system levels (that is, school, district, and state). The…