While the demands of teaching continue to escalate, teacher development has changed relatively little over time, leaving many of today's teachers feeling underprepared, overwhelmed, or demoralized with few opportunities to make real change. Teacher leadership holds promise for both addressing challenges within schools and empowering teachers.…

What can educators do to help students care about their learning and become more invested in their own success? Chase Nordengren describes how a school district created a goal-setting culture in all classrooms at all grade levels. The district began with a complex, research-based, prescriptive program that teachers found did not work well with…

Although many schools around the world have claimed to embrace the Professional Learning Community process, it would be more accurate to describe the current state of affairs in many schools as PLC Lite. Educators rename their traditional faculty or department meetings as PLC meetings, engage in book studies that result in no action, or devote…

In response to local districts' needs for certified teachers with community roots who understand local schools and students, the authors developed an innovative alternative route for paraprofessionals based on a traditional bachelor's program. Their goals were to provide a rigorous, research-based program that allows paraprofessionals to get a…

The most efficient and effective framework for organizing mental health services in schools is through a multitiered system of support. This framework typically features three increasingly intense tiers intervention providing a continuum of care for all students in the school, not simply those identified as having a disability. Tier 1 universal…

The authors of this article are engaged in an ongoing pilot implementation and study of the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) Educator Growth and Development Cycle, known as EGDC. LAUSD implemented the EGDC pilot in the 2011-12 school year, focusing on a small subset of volunteering school administrators and teachers. The district's…

In 2008, the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation began the social studies textbook adoption process. Concurrently, the Indiana State Board of Education wrote a memo encouraging schools to look at digital resources; BCSC did not hesitate. This article describes why BCSC chose to move to a digital format at the secondary level, the process…

Pennsylvania's attempt to implement competency-based education in the public schools is a well-meaning but misguided effort to improve the schools. It will succeed only in diverting vast amounts of time, energy, and intelligence away from more important and more attainable goals. (Author/IRT)

The University of Florida's 5-year teacher education program--developed over 4 years and adopted in fall 1984--requires deeper academic study, more clinical and field work, more education coursework, and more comprehensive student and program evaluation than the previous traditional program. (MCG)

Describes how the University of Kansas developed its 5-year teacher education program in the late 1970s and reports the program's design and current status. Presents preliminary observations on the results of the program. (MCG)

In South Carolina a practicum-based copperative internship program for potential administrators has been developed. It gives students a unique opportunity to put into practice administrative concepts. (MD)

Describes how three institutions and agencies constructed an in-service teacher education program based on an assessment of the needs of teachers and administrators in the region. (IRT)

Describes common curricular components of 10 education programs to teach students democratic citizenship. Highlights characteristics of three programs: a high school government course, a college-level program, and an adult education program. Describes three broad priorities of successful programs: commitment, capacity, and connection. Includes a…

Now 30 years old, the Head Start program has received continued bipartisan support in Congress. Competing proposals for early intervention, day-care, and child/parent centers are costly, ineffective band-aids. Expanding Head Start into a four- to six-year program starting at age three or four would be the most cost-effective use of federal…

The National Network for Educational Renewal is committed to cultivating and connecting all the essential components of a healthy teacher education enterprise: the partner schools (clinical or professional development schools); subject specializations of university arts and sciences departments; and the part of teacher education commonly provided…