The brochure discusses the Shared Services Program of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory of Portland, Oregon. The program operates on the premise that it can provide additional programs (frequently of higher quality) to rural school districts at a lower per-capita cost. The shared services are conducted through cooperative efforts…

The requirement that public schools desegregate presents many problems for the school districts of Louisiana and other States, but also offers opportunities for improving educational quality for all students, regardless of race. Recent court decisions and civil rights legislation leave no doubt that the present minimal desegregation efforts of…

This document offers specific, practical techniques for dealing with the multiple responsibilities and problems associated with contemporary secondary school administration. The document's 18 chapters provide the secondary school principal with guidelines applicable to the following areas of secondary school administration: (1) Development of…

School systems must comply with numerous federal and state requirements in filling positions. This article sets forth those requirements in four areas: (1) advertising positions; (2) interviewing candidates; (3) selecting a candidate; and (4) verifying a candidate's legal status. (MLF)

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Alliance Releases Teacher Paper: Tapping the Potential: Retaining and Developing High-Quality New Teachers; (2) A…

Of all the factors that schools control, teacher quality is the one that most affects student achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2000). In fact, researcher Eric Hanushek (2002) found the difference in annual student achievement growth between a student taught by an effective teacher and one taught by an ineffective teacher can be as much as one…

State policymakers can have an impact on the quality of the teaching force if they look seriously at three issues. The first issue is setting and enforcing teaching standards: setting standards for teacher education, teacher licensing, and ongoing evaluation and professional development; working toward National Council for the Accreditation of…

The Urban Teacher Program (UTP) is the result of a collaboration between Wayne County Community College (WCCC), Wayne State University (Michigan), and Eastern Michigan University. It was created to recruit, educate, and prepare minority students for teaching careers in urban elementary schools, where learning is hindered by violence and lack of…

This paper describes the Open University's Postgraduate Certificate in Education, a postgraduate preservice teacher training program in the United Kingdom. The program provides access to the teaching profession for those who cannot train by conventional routes. It is characterized by: distance education; school-based partnerships; an explicit…

A consortium involving the Grayson County (Virginia) school system, Wytheville Community College, and Radford University was developed to address the teacher shortage in rural, economically depressed Grayson County. Using existing courses, a curriculum was developed that allows a student at Grayson County high school to obtain as much as 32 hours…

This report contains data on three facets of special education attrition in Kansas. First, the report documents attrition information for special education personnel who were employed during the 2000-2001 school year (SY) but who did not return to a special education position in Kansas for the 2001-02 SY. Second, attrition rates for special…

This report presents a literature review that was initiated to provide Virginia school districts with information about attracting and retaining quality teachers. The review addresses what school divisions are doing to retain teachers in the first 5 years; teachers' perceptions regarding school division retention strategies; and reasons teachers…

This publication presents data on the supply and demand of teachers, principals, and superintendents in Ohio for 1999. A collection of 23 tables present data on: teacher salaries; teaching experience; degree status; teacher profiles; teacher licensure; full-time teacher retention; teaching conditions; Ohio's population; enrollment projections;…

The federal Class-Size Reduction (CSR) Program, first authorized in PL 105-277, begun in Fiscal Year 1999, represented a major federal commitment to help school districts hire additional qualified teachers, especially in the early elementary grades, so children would learn in smaller classes. The ultimate goal of the program was to improve student…

This study examined the quantity and quality of teacher recruitment programs for K-12 public school students, highlighting the need for minority group teachers. Surveys of 380 California schools in northern California indicated that 96% had no opportunities for students at any grade level to learn in a systematic manner about becoming a teacher.…