Comparing the effectiveness of different strategies for remediating teacher weaknesses, as measured by the Instrument for Observation of Teaching Activities (IOTA), 99 elementary and junior high school teachers were observed. The study revealed that combining IOTA feedback with structured inservice workshops focusing on narrow specific weaknesses…

Marginal teachers have three common behaviors that have questionable or negative effects on student learning: failure to create an appropriate classroom atmosphere, lack of personal insight and motivation, and unwillingness to accept responsibility for problems. When mentoring and improvement programs fail, collaborative programs with the right…

As principals and other administrators increasingly find themselves being held accountable for various school performance measures, they must recognize the deleterious effects of poorly performing teachers and learn to evaluate all teachers more truthfully. Documentation will be effective only if it is honest, straightforward, and complete.…

A combination of methods--portfolios, direct observation, assessment centers, and better tests--can compensate for one another's shortcomings and reflect the richness and complexity of teaching. (Author/TE)

Teachers can use professional development portfolios to facilitate learning and improve classroom practice. The article offers a history and description of professional development portfolios, sharing how teachers have used them and examining the influence of professional development portfolios on teachers as learners. Implications for staff…

Reports results from a national survey, investigating the following: who evaluates journalism and mass communication teaching and how often it is evaluated, what is evaluated, definitions of effective teaching, why teaching is evaluated, and the benefits and shortcomings of evaluation. Concludes assessment of journalism and mass communication…

Describes one principal's experience in dealing with an incompetent teacher. (PKP)

Explores the distinctions among good teaching, scholarly teaching, and teaching scholarship and discusses methods of formative evaluation that can produce improvement in these areas. (EV)

Investigated teachers' perceptions of professional development in teacher evaluation systems and processes, active participation of teachers in the evaluation process, and evaluation effectiveness, noting the relationships to each other. Teacher surveys indicated that providing training to teachers in teacher evaluation processes contributed to…

This article addresses the choice of the most appropriate procedure for the assessment of portfolios used in teacher and lecturer assessment. A characteristic of modern assessment modes, including portfolios, is that the information they provide is often qualitative and derived from different contexts. Unambiguous, objective rating of portfolios…

This paper discusses the online Personal Learning Planner (PLP) project underway at the National Institute of Community Innovations (NICI), one of the partners in the Teacher Education Network (TEN), a 2000 PT3 Catalyst grantee. The Web-based PLP provides a standards-linked "portfolio space" for both works in progress and demonstration collections…

This report summarizes findings of an elementary educator's dissertation research, which examined plans of assistance that were used to remediate three teachers deemed incompetent. The study focused on the reasons for placing the teachers on a plan of assistance, the remediation procedure actually implemented, and the plan's final outcome. Teacher…

Current demands to prepare students for the 21st century represent a dramatic departure from the mission for which the American system of public education was originally designed. To help educators with these changes, a conceptual framework of strategies in planning for and bringing out essential shifts in philosophy is presented here. The text…

Author argued that the mindlessness, intellectual docility, and subservience that characterize teachers are directly a function of the working conditions of teachers and that teachers are denied the conditions necessary for the development of the mind because of the way in which schools are organized and controlled. (Author/RK)

Those charged with the tasks of observing, assessing, and judging classroom teaching behaviors can avoid the pitfalls of previous observers and assessors by looking at the historical development of observation procedures and reasons for utilizing teacher observation instruments. (Author/RK)