This study explores the impact of a government-funded program which sought to retrain in-service teachers in regional Queensland as Indonesian language teachers through an Australian university-led program with on-campus and in-country components. The study first examines how the Indonesian for Teachers Initiative (InTI) program's diverse social…

Research suggests that professional development that engages teachers in instructional inquiry over an extended time through collaborative professional learning communities (PLCs) is effective in improving instruction and student achievement. Still, most professional development is offered as short-duration workshops that are not effective in…

We describe efforts to build a learning community to support technology integration in three rural school districts and the contributions of various program strategies toward teacher growth. The Stages of Adoption Inventory, classroom observations, the Questionnaire for Technology Integration, interviews, STAR evaluation surveys, a survey of…

This article explores the learning arising from a pilot inter-school visits programme in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Teachers from two schools undertook a series of visits with the aim of developing learning and teaching in their schools. The pilot sought to understand ways in which such a collaborative visits programme could be used to build…

This article reports on mainstream teachers who took part in a federally funded master's in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) program and through a series of collaborative efforts have become experts in their own school systems and leaders in English as a second language (ESL) teacher preparation throughout their region.…

This book raises provocative questions about the efficacy, viability, and sustainability of professional learning communities given the current political and structural realities of public schools. The culmination of six years of research in five states, it explores real-world efforts to establish learning communities as a strategy for…

Teacher professional communities are central in the current discussion of teacher learning and professional development. Instructional reform initiatives aimed at improving student achievement through changes in instruction depend on effective professional development structures. Increasingly, teacher professional communities are being identified…

In this paper we review the evolution of the Quality Educator Program (QEP), a program sponsored by the United Auto Workers (UAW)/General Motors (GM) that employs school teachers, administrators, and college and university faculty each summer in GM assembly plants. The QEP provides educators and those in industry the unique opportunity to interact…

Over the last five years schools and districts have been under enormous pressure to improve student achievement scores on state accountability assessments. Educators agree that professional development plays a key role in providing the knowledge and skills needed to increase teacher effectiveness in the classroom. There is no reliable measure for…

This report provides short descriptions of systemic approaches for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding including: (1) 21st Century Classroom; (2) Comprehensive Professional Development; (3) Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems; (4) Formative Assessment; (5) Digital Content; (6) Virtual Learning; and (7) Learning Management Systems.

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…

This paper describes the signature role played by accomplished, experienced teachers in professional learning communities, and the importance that these practitioners make their teaching public and shared. In so doing, the authors describe how accomplished practices can be shared between classrooms and between practitioners with varying levels of…

This article describes an effort to create a teacher learning community in which university and local school teachers worked together to improve the teaching of writing at elementary and secondary levels. I describe how a university's National Writing Project (NWP) engaged in developing a cadre of selected teachers to share understandings about…

This document describes the mentoring relationship from the perspectives of several virtual schools that have built mentoring programs to assist their new teachers. Each school's mentoring program is unique and has been designed specifically for the school's staff, size, and instructional approach. These schools have learned that a successful…

This case study describes an effort to design and pilot an interactive, Web-based, district-wide "professional support portal" to support new teacher retention and professional growth in the Milwaukee Public Schools. The study reviews the overarching goals of this program and focuses, in particular, on an account of the nature and kinds…