For months, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been debated throughout the media, legislatures, education organizations, and households across the country. Education groups have released statements both in favor of the standards and opposed. As these arguments are being tossed around, 44 states and D.C. are implementing CCSS and other…

Offers suggestions for spending staff development money effectively. Ideas include the following: (1) keep your money close to the classroom; (2) use consultants to train your own trainers; (3) beware of embarking on numerous small-scale reforms; and (4) beware of pressure to copy other school improvement methods. (CJH)

Staff development is the key to middle school effectiveness, and this article lists characteristics of an effective staff development program, examples of activities and topics, and questions for program evaluation. (DCS)

Many college and university student service units consider staff development peripheral to their primary mission and not cost effective, especially in lean financial times. However, recent trends in business suggest this assumption is false, and ultimately costly. The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, experience found development efforts empower…

There are thousands of different inservice education programs. The purposes of this study were to identify the elements of effective teacher inservice education; to measure to what degree these elements actually exist in inservice education programs reported by Texas teachers; and to develop a strategy for effective teacher inservice. A modified…

As an example of successful training in teacher coaching, this article describes a program conducted by the Santa Clara County, California, Educational Development Center. Aspects of the program discussed are its design, the selection of participants, the training process, the program's results, and the program's future. (MCG)

Describes Research In Teacher Education (RITE), a staff development model that uses school district staff to train teachers and that identifies effective teaching and staff development practices. Information is presented on the model's characteristics and implementation, research contributing to the model, a field test, and San Diego's adoption of…

This paper identifies a number of factors that staff developers should consider in planning an effective program. A staff development program is considered to be effective if teachers adapt the material or content learned into their classrooms and retain the implementation over time, if teachers and administrators express satisfaction with the…

This sourcebook, prepared to assist New Jersey urban school principals and administrators, presents research findings and describes exemplary programs related to the Urban Initiative, a school improvement project of the New Jersey Department of Education. The source book consists of three major sections. Section 1 reviews effective schools…

Includes a checklist of eight items that day care center administrators can use to determine whether their programs are providing the intended types of learning experiences and teacher-student interactions, and whether the staff is satisfied with the working environment. (SKC)

To determine what effect a series of inservice programs for school administrators had on participating school principals and their schools, principals filled out questionnaires before and after five inservice programs. Changes were noted in three domains of participant characteristics--cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. (JW)

School systems can promote computer literacy among teachers by starting at the administrative level, making inservice comprehensive and long-term, providing concrete support, and offering opportunities for participation. (Author)

Describes organization and evaluation of 13 workshops at the University of Wisconsin-Madison providing professional development for clinical research support staff. Topics included ethics, protocol development, statistics, audits, and tips and tools for successful research. Evaluation indicated the workshops met educational goals but did not…

Discusses the use of coaching to establish a communal learning effort among teachers and reinforce skills introduced through inservice. Issues examined include the length of coaching, who should coach, training coaches, coaching's effects, the relationships of evaluation and supervision to coaching, the principal's role, and implementation. (MCG)

This handbook is designed to provide teachers and administrators at the district and school level with a set of procedures for gathering information about the major components of a computer education program and for using the information to develop conclusions and recommendations regarding the components of the program. The four major components…