The school visit is an effective tool for stimulating the continued professional growth of middle level educators. In the past, however, a major problem with school visits was that they were conducted with positive expectations, but very little preplanning activities, little or no on-site structure, little or no debriefing for either the visiting…

What do the National Staff Development Council's standards look like in practice for teachers, principals, central office staff, superintendents, and board members? Newly developed Innovation Configurations help everyone on the list understand where they fall along the continuum of effective practices aligned to the standards.

Research and numerous model programs suggest that sports play an important social role. Particularly among youth, sports and professional athlete role models help deter juvenile delinquency. Several athlete organizations have been established to aid youth. (SI)

Primary pediatric and adolescent health care providers are confronted every day with youngsters who have substantial mental health and psychosocial concerns. These caregivers are in a unique position to help deal with such concerns and transform how the nation thinks about and addresses the mental health of young people. This brief highlights ways…

This paper describes a peer-mentoring program in a large language department. Experienced Teaching Associates (TAs) served as peer mentors to novice TAs, providing the type of individualized guidance that new TAs need. The peer mentoring model has several advantages over the supervision-only model, including one-on-one help, multiple classroom…