This study aims to improve the competence of school teachers in the Province of North Sumatra, Indonesia, through collaboration between the Universitas Negeri Medan and local governments. It introduced a training program model to school teachers in 33 regencies and cities, comprising activities as agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding. The…

With the adoption by most states of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English language arts and literacy and for mathematics (CCSS Initiative, 2010a, 2010b) comes major changes in public education that will affect instructional practice, curriculum, and assessment across the nation. Heritage, Walqui, and Linquanti (2015) argued that the…

The purpose of the study was to investigate and describe the perceptions of recently NBPTS certified teachers in Maryland of the NBPTS certification process as both a professional development activity and as an evaluation instrument to identify teaching excellence. This descriptive survey used an online survey to collect data from 125 teachers for…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a curriculum design-based (CDB) professional development model on K-12 teachers' capacity to integrate engineering education in the classroom. This teacher professional development approach differs from other training programs where teachers learn how to use a standard curriculum and…

Interpretations for licensure tests involve a series of inferences or a validity argument, leading from the test score to decisions about who is accepted or denied entry into a profession. Utilizing an argument-based framework for validation based on the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, we explore the evidence for the ongoing…

Many theories, methods, and practices are utilized to evaluate teachers with the intention of determining teacher effectiveness to better inform decisions about retention, tenure, certification and performance-based pay. In the 21st century there has been a renewed emphasis on teacher evaluation in public schools, largely due to federal "Race…

Early childhood teachers are rightly concerned with implementing a system that was, at least in the initial stages, designed with a different set of teachers in mind--teachers of older students who have standardized achievement data. In most states, policy, practices, and guidance for early childhood teachers are just now being developed or…

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, in its aim to align diverse state curricula and improve educational outcomes, calls for K-12 teachers in the United States to engage all students in mathematical problem solving along with reading and writing complex text through the use of rigorous academic content. Until recently, most teacher…

Over the past decade, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland has focused on improving teacher capacity as a strategy to address achievement gaps and promote "college-ready" standards in what has become an "urban suburb" with significant pockets of high-need students. As part of this focus on quality teaching, the…

Idea man par excellence, Lee Shulman has long set directions for research on teaching. After founding and directing the Institute for Research on Teaching at Michigan State University, Shulman, now at Stanford, continues his far-reaching investigations into the interplay of content and pedagogy and into assessments of teaching that faithfully…

Two approaches to setting standards for the professional performance of teachers are contrasted. One involves a coherent professional belief system in which an internal standard is invoked within a conceptual framework. It is exemplified by Sigel's Distancing Model, and involves a theoretical standard for teacher performance and emphasizes the…

Drafted by representatives of the teaching profession along with personnel from 17 state education agencies, the performance-based standards in this document represent a common core of teaching knowledge and skills. The standards were developed to be compatible with the advanced certification standards of the National Board for Professional…

Finding ways to improve the assessment of beginning teachers is part of an effort to assure that fully certified teachers possess the professional knowledge and skills necessary for competence in contemporary classrooms. Research done by the California New Teacher Project (CNTP) suggests that some knowledge and skills cannot be fully learned in…

This comprehensive set of standards is for the purpose of assessing the training of preschool through grade 12 communication teachers by accredited institutions of higher education. The standards were developed in alignment with several relevant professional organizations. Adoption of the standards by the National Communication Association…

This Louisiana System for Teaching and Learning Assessment and Review (STAR) illustrates conceptual, methodological, and social/political issues emerging when the decision-making model used to make teacher certification decisions does not fit the assumptions of the measurement system used to collect the data. (SLD)