Teacher collaboration is an increasingly important aspect of the professionalism of teachers: it is a way to reflect on and improve teaching practices. Teacher collaboration has been associated with teachers' professional growth and an increase in self-efficacy. However, policy makers and educational leaders must understand which structures of…

To strengthen inclusion practices in schools, a mandate was passed requiring special education teachers working at the middle and high school levels to become content certified. The purpose of this research study was to examine the outcome the content/dual certification mandate had on special education teachers' roles in co-taught inclusion…

This evaluation report describes a central professional learning strategy that the California NGSS Early Implementers Initiative used to help teachers effectively transition to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The Initiative's approach to lesson study, called a Teaching Learning Collaborative (TLC), brings together teams of teachers…

Gateway Public Schools--a middle and high school serving a diverse group of about 800 students in San Francisco--was founded in 1998 by parents of students with learning disabilities seeking a supportive environment for their children. As a public charter organization with a lottery entrance system, Gateway seeks to admit a student body that…

Quality teaching depends on a wide array of personal and contextual factors. An emerging and substantial body of literature has reframed the focus on teaching quality by examining how teachers' abilities to influence student achievement change over the course of their career and how these changes are influenced by the context in which they work.…

Teachers and school leaders frequently make decisions about which strategies will best support students who struggle academically or behaviorally, but evidence-based information about the quality of these strategies is not always available. Resources as the What Works Clearinghouse and the Regional Education Laboratories can help educators…

NGSS Early Implementers is a four-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This evaluation report describes how site and district administrators are making critical contributions to the…

NGSS Early Implementers is a six-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Administrators need learning opportunities if they are to adequately understand the substantial shifts of the Next…

The primary purpose of this publication is to provide those involved in special education teacher preparation and professional development with a set of high-leverage practices (HLPs) that were identified through consensus among special educators. These HLPs may be used to design a cohesive set of practice based opportunities to support teacher…

One of the most pressing issues facing policymakers is how to staff classrooms with a stable teaching force responsive to complex student needs and the growing demands of the knowledge economy. Recurrent teacher shortages are a function of both declines in entrants to teaching and high rates of teacher attrition, especially in low-income schools.…

This document presents the testimony of Carmel Martin, Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, delivered at the New York State Office of the Governor Common Core Implementation Panel on Wednesday, February 19, 2014. In this statement, Martin began by saying that The Center for American Progress believes that this…

This paper focuses on engaging and enabling educators to play new roles and take new leadership in the paradigm shift between traditional and competency-based education: a system of learning designed to ensure that all learners are prepared with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be successful lifelong learners. The paper re-envisions…

Part of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) research series titled "Teachers' Time: Collaborating for Learning, Teaching, and Leading," this case study looks at Hillsdale High School, a large, comprehensive high school located in San Mateo, California, a high-tech enclave of Silicon Valley nestled 23 miles…

Part of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) research series titled "Time Matters: Teacher Collaboration for Learning and Leading," this cross-case study and accompanying research brief were gathered as part of a larger study of four public schools across the United States that organized teacher time and work…

Mobile learning is an educational strategy that uses mobile technologies in order to promote and enable learning. Mobile learning also encompasses efforts to support broad educational goals across numerous fields as it caters to the effective administration of learning systems and more improved communication between educational institutions,…