The PD program evaluated in this study is designed to address the problem of low student achievement in topics in rational numbers. The study focuses on seventh grade, the culminating year for teaching those topics. The study randomly assigned 77 mid- and high-poverty schools from 12 districts to treatment and control conditions and collected…

A parent training program pilot designed and implemented to develop early literacy skills of bilingual Hispanic pre-kindergarten students is described and analyzed through a case study approach. The program incorporated parent collaboration, bilingual literacy training and accessible literary themes to improve literacy prior to kindergarten.…

A growing number of states and communities are implementing the Pyramid Model in early care and education settings, and in many of these places there are also early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) programs operating. This policy brief provides an overview of ECMHC, how it can support the implementation of the Pyramid Model and the…

What role must principals play in order to effectively support literacy coaching efforts? This is a question that many educators have begun to ask (Burkins, 2007; Casey, 2006; Kral, 2007; Shanklin, 2007; Steiner & Kowal, 2007; Toll, 2008). Some suggest that principals can establish close relationships with literacy coaches by offering a number…

Assessment, particularly formative assessment, is critical to knowing how a student is performing academically and how best to support that student. Teachers, especially new teachers, need ongoing support in developing and using both summative and formative assessments as an integral part of their instructional practice. Written collaboratively by…

In this article we describe an approach to the design of learning objects (LOs) suitable to support learning in complex domains. We briefly discuss, from an educational point of view, the methodological choices underlying the design of LOs to be used as didactical materials in a distributed Web-based environment, presently under development,…

Researchers have argued that "job-embedded" professional learning is the most valuable model for teachers (Joyce & Showers, 2002). But there is little or no corresponding literature regarding job-embedded professional learning for literacy coaches. In this paper, the authors offer an example of one such model, the Coach-to-Coach…

Written by a team of creative and highly qualified music therapists, this publication provides content training for the use of group percussion strategies with mature adults. In fact, the book promotes senior peers as group facilitators and/or coleaders. The grace of this approach is that no previous musical training is necessary in order to…

Adult volunteers who work as experiential educators in Public Achievement (PA) told us about their experiences, and we contrasted these with the stated aims of Public Achievement, young peoples' experiences, and what it is like to be an adult volunteer. PA coaches reflected that there was a significant disjuncture between the official aims of PA…

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) is the principal association representing the technology leadership in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This is SETDA's ninth annual report on select educational technology activities. This year's report includes…

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA)--the principal association representing the technology leadership in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs--presents its eighth annual report on select, national, educational technology activities. This…

The report, "The Ready to Teach Program: A Federal Initiative in Support of Online Courses for Teachers", describes the history of the Ready to Teach Program and its role as one of the solutions to the national need to increase the performance of teachers through professional development. The report describes selected findings from the Eisenhower…

This brief is intended to provide State Education Agency (SEA) and Local Education Agency (LEA) educators with a brief overview of key components of GraduateFIRST, a Georgia program targeting issues impacting school completion for students with disabilities. Georgia's GraduateFIRST program has redefined the state's approach to raising graduation…

This article explores the effects of the Time To Know program, a comprehensive technology-rich learning environment, on low socio-economic status (SES) students' learning achievements in Mathematics, Hebrew, and English as a Foreign Language (EFL)in Israel. The study is based on the assumption that one of the possible solutions for bridging the…

In Fall 2009 and Spring 2010, 30 teaching residency programs received funding through one of 28 Teacher Quality partnership grants awarded to establish or expand residency programs. These programs follow a model of teacher preparation in which prospective teachers complete graduate-level coursework alongside a year-long fieldwork experience in the…