First-year teachers experience five phases: anticipation, survival, disillusionment, rejuvenation, and reflection. A Mundelein Illinois mentoring program supports beginning teachers with informal socializing opportunities and information-sharing meetings with district staff and principals. Over a 4-year period, only one of 23 mentored teachers has…

This report describes a program for improving inconsistent reading comprehension. The targeted population consisted of first, third, and fifth grade classrooms in a diverse middle class community located in Illinois. The problems of low academic achievement were documented through teacher observation, reading comprehension test scores, and low…

An Illinois elementary school district concerned about unnecessary referrals for possible special education designed and piloted a regular education assistance team system which brought about greater regular teacher collaboration and increased accuracy in referral for case study evaluation. The building level teams consisted of regular education…