Category » TEACHERS

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  A matter of degrees: Preparing teachers for the Pre-K classroom

  1/30/10 - Marisa Bueno, Linda Darting-Hammond, Danielle Gonzales

  "Across the nation, states are investing substantial dollars in publicly funded, voluntary pre-kindergarten programs. These investments and initiatives come in response to research on brain development,1 accountability pressures to improve student achievement in elementary and secondary schools and strong evidence that high-quality pre-k can yield long-term benefits for children and society. The ultimate value of those investments, however, depends not only on the legislation that...

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  Adding value to discussions about value-added: A new framework for talking about teacher effectiveness

  1/16/09 - Raegen Miller

  "Past initiatives to improve teacher quality offer two general lessons. First, simplistic responses—across-the-board raises, more stringent licensure requirements, mandated professional development—are extremely expensive, utterly ineffective, or both. Only policies that tightly link incentives to desired results stand a chance of being effective and affordable. Clearly, making such links requires a robust approach to assessing teachers’ impact on outcomes of interest, especially...

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  Addressing dropout related factors at the local level: Recommendations for teachers

  1/14/09 - Smith, S.C.

  As educators and practitioners continue to seek effective interventions to prevent dropout, they must focus on identifying, monitoring, and addressing risk factors that are influenced by teachers (e.g., academic performance, peer and adult interactions, attendance, and behavior).

• African American educators' perspectives on the advanced placement opportunity gap

  1/1/08 - DeVance Taliaferro, Jocelyn, DeCuir-Gunby, Jessica T.

  This study examines perspectives of educators on the advanced placement opportunity gap for African American students. Using interviews with 11 educators from 10 high schools, we explored their perceptions regarding the impact of a local academic achievement program on the enrollment of African American students in honors and advanced placement courses. Results of the analysis suggest that there is a perceived and real gap in the participation of African American students in AP courses...

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  America's Opportunity: Teacher Effectiveness and Equity in K-12 Classrooms

  1/2/09 - Laura Goe

  "As the federal education focus shifts from highly qualified teachers to highly effective teachers, a systemic approach to recruiting, supporting, and evaluating teachers is necessary to ensure that all students have access to highly effective teachers."

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  Approaches to evaluating teacher effectiveness: A research synthesis

  1/3/09 - Goe, E., Bell, C., Little, O.

  This research synthesis examines how teacher effectiveness is currently measured and provides practical guidance for how best to evaluate teacher effectiveness. It evaluates the research on teacher effectiveness and the different instruments used to measure it. In addition, it defines the components and indicators that characterize effective teachers, extending this definition beyond teachers' contribution to student achievement gains to include how teachers impact classrooms, schools, and...

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  Back to School: Tips for Parents of Children with Special Needs

  1/1/10 - Wernsing, K.

  A new school year means a new grade, new teachers, new goals, and maybe even a new school! In order to help you and your child with special needs be as successful as you can be, we’ve put together a list of eight helpful back-to-school tips that we hope will make the transition into a new school year a little easier for you and your child.

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  Barriers to the preparation of highly qualified teachers in reading

  1/10/09 - Susan Smartt, Daniel Reschly

  This brief discusses scientifically based reading instruction in relation to federal policy mandates. It focuses on strategies and standards for ensuring that teachers are qualified to teach reading and provides recommendations for improving the teaching of reading.

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  Becoming Culturally Responsive Educators: Rethinking Teacher Education Pedagogy

  1/5/09 - Cathy Kea, Gloria D. Campbell-Whatley, Heraldo V. Richards

  This practitioner brief deals with designing teacher education programs (TEPs) that are mindful of student diversity. It applies to all teacher educators, teachers and parents. Despite the steadily increasing numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse student populations in schools, not all TEPs readily embrace multicultural education or culturally responsive teacher education pedagogy. In this brief, the authors demonstrate the need for rethinking current approaches to teacher...

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  Building an early childhood professional development system

  1/10/10 - Rachel Demma

  "Specialized knowledge of how young children develop and learn is critical for members of the early childhood workforce. All members of this workforce need access to preparation programs at two- and four-year colleges and opportunities for ongoing education and development. Unfortunately, many states are not collecting data about professional qualifications and ongoing professional development that could inform measures of program quality and child outcomes."

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  Building Leadership Teams, Academy 1, Facilitator's Manual

  1/18/10 - National Institute for Urban School Improvement

  This is from the Building Leadership Teams Professional Module. Please see the other documents within this module (6 total participant handouts, 1 participant handbook, 3 facilitator manuals, and 3 slide presentations)

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  Can Teacher Training in Classroom Management Make a Difference for Children’s Experiences in Preschool?: A Preview of Findings from the Foundations of Learning Demonstration

  1/23/09 - Pamela Morris , Cybele Raver , Chrishana M. Lloyd , Megan Millenky

  "This report offers a preview of promising findings from Foundations of Learning (FOL), a demonstration and random assignment evaluation in Newark and Chicago of an intervention that trains preschool teachers to better support children’s behavior and emotional development. The model tested in Foundations of Learning combined teacher training in effective classroom management with weekly classroom consultation. Consultants coached and mentored the teachers in the new strategies learned in...

• Closing the Achievement Gap Through Teacher Collaboration: Facilitating Multiple Trajectories of Teacher Learning

  1/1/07 - Levine, Thomas H., Marcus, Alan S.

  How should district and school leaders improve education for students traditionally underserved by public education: by increasing control over teaching and curriculum, or by empowering groups of teachers to have more collective autonomy, responsibility, and opportunities for professional learning? The second approach-promoting multiple trajectories of learning among groups of teachers-has advantages, as well as some challenges, as a means of closing various achievement gaps. Sociocultural...

• Closing the achievement gap through teacher collaboration: Facilitating multiple trajectories of teacher learning

  1/1/08 - Levine, Thomas H., Marcus, Alan S.

  How should district and school leaders improve education for students traditionally underserved by public education: by increasing control over teaching and curriculum, or by empowering groups of teachers to have more collective autonomy, responsibility, and opportunities for professional learning? second approach--promoting multiple trajectories of learning among groups of teachers--has advantages, as well as some challenges, as a means of closing various achievement gaps. Sociocultural...

• Closing the Achievement Gap With Curriculum Enrichment and Differentiation: One School's Story

  1/1/08 - Beecher, Margaret, Sweeny, Sheelah M.

  This article summarizes a unique approach to reducing the achievement gap that strategically blended differentiated curriculum with schoolwide enrichment teaching and learning. The theories of enrichment and instructional differentiation were translated into practice in an elementary school that had previously embraced a remedial paradigm. This enrichment approach resulted in improved student achievement and the reduction of the achievement gap between rich and poor and among different...

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  Co-Teaching and Team Teaching: Promising Opportunities for Supporting Novice Special Education Teachers Within the School Culture

  1/1/10 - Pugach, M. C., Blanton, L. P., Correa, V. I., McLeskey, J., & Langley, L. K.

  A collaborative school context can support novice special education teachers. Co-teaching and team teaching represent collaborative opportunities that can counteract the historic isolation of special education teachers. Co-teaching and team teaching—the focus of this Brief—also have the potential for supporting novice teacher socialization in the school setting.