This article summarizes current research on effective professional development and offers a checklist for school leaders to use when designing learning opportunities for teachers. Effective professional development engages teachers in learning opportunities that are supportive, job-embedded, instructionally-focused, collaborative, and ongoing.…

New Leaders for New Schools created the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) initiative in 2006 to learn from educators driving achievement gains in high-need urban schools. EPIC identifies school leaders and teachers whose students are making significant achievement gains and financially rewards these educators in exchange for sharing…

The author describes how a New Brunswick board set up an early French immersion program. (Editor)

Current trends in exceptional child education are discussed in relationship to the need for better inservice training (IT) to upgrade the readiness of regular teachers to include exceptional children in their classes. Noted are trends such as increasing numbers of exceptional children in regular classrooms, and fewer children institutionalized or…

In Florida, State Department of Education emphasis on "Teachers as Advisor Programs" across the state has created a demand for the training sequence described in this paper. Current reasons for promoting the program are listed and a brief training course description is provided. The skills involved are intended to be sequential. The course is…

Advocates the creation of an "at-home" environment in after-school programs to encourage children to wind down after active days and to make child care a place of security, love, and fun. Suggests that a quiet environment, snacks, homework, puzzles and games, outdoor or gymnasium play comprise an effective after-school program. (KDFB)

Described is the Merrill Area (Wisconsin) Public School district's plan to develop and provide the necessary program and classes to meet the needs of behaviorally and emotionally disturbed students. Brief sections cover the following topics: program philosophy (provision of adequate education to each child); definition of the emotionally or…

PAPA: Plans, Action and Progress Assessment, a process whereby the professional educator can effectively organize professional growth and development efforts, is presented. The process can also aid teachers, counselors, professors, or administrators in improving job performance. The three parts of the program are described. (CT)

This publication discusses criteria for post-secondary education of technicians as illustrated by the accumulated experience of successful programs which have had their graduates sought after by employees. Chapter headings are (1) Technicians: Who They Are and What They Do, (2) Administration of Programs to Educate Technicians, (3) Physical…

Individualized and personalized (I and P) programs place learners at the center of all the activity. The eight main elements of such programs are: philosophical and taxonomic considerations; instructors as resource persons and learning managers; peer tutoring, personal and academic counseling, and cognitive style maps of students; instruction…

The University of Montana (Missoula) has developed its first electronically delivered graduate degree program. Participating in the collaborative effort are the School of Education, the Center for Continuing Education and Summer Programs, and the Higher Education Center at the Helena College of Technology of the University of Montana. The first…

This guide is aimed at persons concerned about quality postsecondary distributive education programs, specifically in Kansas. It provides guidelines for program organization and administration in community colleges and area vocational-technical schools. Section I presents general introductory information about postsecondary distributive education,…

Discusses mentoring as a professional development strategy to meet the needs of experienced and novice practitioners. Defines mentoring and differentiates it from supervision. Discusses the following aspects of early childhood mentoring programs: (1) goals and assumptions; (2) design and structure, including mentor qualifications and training; (3)…

Based on experience gained during the development of the Planters Employee Training (PET) program in cooperation with the Suffolk City Schools, Virginia, this handbook provides guidelines for similar cooperative adult basic education (CABE) programs. The table of contents is arranged in the order in which the CABE/PET program was developed and…

The impetus for developing a model to retrain women teachers and skilled women to become teachers in traditionally male-intensive secondary vocational education has emerged from a combination of problems and issues. The most pertinent of these involve the factors of supply and demand, coupled with the need to reduce sex stereotyping and bias in…