As the school year gave way to summer vacation, a group of 11 Nebraska educators embarked on a 16-day professional development journey to the western Mexico city of Guadalajara. During a two week stay in Mexico, these educators--who were made up of in-service and pre-service teachers and school support personnel--engaged in a structured program of…

Improving teacher quality in early education is a major part of ensuring young children's school readiness and closing the achievement gap. This is the book decision-makers and administrators need to begin developing coordinated, effective teacher quality systems--ones that not only get teachers ready for the classroom, but also promote continuous…

"Understanding the HighScope Approach" is a much needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of the HighScope Approach. It will enable the reader to analyse the essential elements of the HighScope Approach to early childhood and its relationship to quality early years practice. Exploring…

A Colorado district develops a two-year program that gives teacher teams an opportunity to learn how to use digital tools in the classroom. Called the Digital Learning Collaborative, it is built on three things about professional learning: (1) Learning takes time; (2) Learning is a social process; and (3) Learning about technology should be…

The Detroit Healthy Youth Initiative is a 10-year partnership between the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) and Wayne State University (WSU) with the goal of improving the quality of school health and physical education programs throughout the city schools. Drawing on the experiences of WSU and DPS faculty, administrators, teachers, and project staff,…

This study reports on a district-wide research-based professional development (PD) that included 207 teachers and administrators. Data were collected from pre/post surveys, content analysis of the participants' wiki pages, and a follow-up questionnaire. Findings indicate that participants significantly improved their foundational and technical…

In a study of urban secondary teachers moving out of professional development and into their classrooms, the research team documented the learning processes of teachers and student groups during their digital video composing to make sense of the curriculum. Taken together, these ethnographic case studies provide evidence that digital video…

This manual overviews New Frontiers, a sex equity support program, and describes some of its most successful educational equity programs. Descriptions of four programs follow this format: purpose, program overview, and process. The programs are Student and Community Role Model Interaction (workshops to bring students and teachers into contact with…

A project is reported that has been in effect for two years in the Roseville, Minnesota, Area Public Schools to provide interested school staff and community people a chance to exchange career roles for varying periods of time, ranging from one day to several weeks. The report contains all memos, application forms, announcements, and…

An experimental language-based program for educating autistic children within a public school system is described. Discussed are the following six program components and their implementation: volunteers and university trainees, parent education and counseling, research, itinerant teaching programs, dissemination, and teacher inservice and visitor…

Focusing on the period from September 1981 to September 1982, this report describes issues and activities related to New York State's funding of contract courses at the community colleges of the State University of New York (SUNY). Introductory material notes that since the passage of authorizing legislation, about 45,000 employees of more than…

The steps and procedures are traced that were involved in planning a statewide inservice program to update public health nursing in Virginia. (Author/EA)

Needs assessment, program design, and evaluation are presented in a series of 12 papers for trainers, educators, and practitioners interested in training for human service practice. Needs assessment is discussed in terms of direct interpersonal approaches; indirect interpersonal approaches; and social indicator approaches. Weaknesses of needs…

This report of the activities of Project MEDIA, the Illinois State-Wide Facilitator for the National Diffusion Network, includes a description of the diffusion and facilitation process in the state, the numbers and types of requests for information and assistance from the project, the impact of Project MEDIA on local education agencies (LEAs) in…

The document outlines characteristics of the Birmingham (Michigan) Program for the Gifted and Talented, a program which serves elementary and secondary level students capable of high performance, demonstrated achievement, and/or potential ability in any of the following areas, singly or in combination--general intellectual ability, specific…