Few have the long-term experience with one-to-one computing that Cincinnati Country Day School has. The small, private, grade 5-12 institution in Indian Hills, Ohio, began its pioneering laptop program in 1996. With six years of practical experience under its belt, the school made the decision to begin transitioning to tablets in 2002, with an…

A year-long collaborative action research project used networked technologies to connect researchers at a university-based online professional development program and a group of practitioner researchers based in a range of schools and educational agencies in several countries. They studied the process and effects of online professional development…

In 2006, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Early Learning Initiative (ELI) to improve the school readiness of Washington State's children through three main strategies: (1) development of high-quality, community-wide early learning initiatives in two communities; (2) enhancement of statewide systems that support early…

This executive summary presents findings from the Year 3 evaluation of Texas' state-level Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP, grant. GEAR UP grant requirements include an evaluation component designed to assess program effectiveness and to measure progress toward project goals. To this end, the evaluation…

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shares the Governor's concern about the need to prepare students for the 21st century economy. Technology has the power to enhance students' learning, engage them, and ultimately prepare them for the competitive world beyond school. In order to prepare students for their future in this increasingly…

The effectiveness of Tennessee EdTech Launch (TnETL), a statewide technology program designed to meet the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate, was investigated in this matched treatment-control quasi-experimental study. The goal of the program was to provide full-time, on-site technology coaches to prepare teachers to create lessons that engage…

When the author was a little girl, her father told her the story of how he once saw the great Harry Houdini escape from a straight jacket. In the early 1900s, Houdini fascinated thousands of people by performing feats of life-threatening daring and agility. Houdini was a professional in the traditional sense: he acted alone, kept his trade secrets…

The purpose of this study was to explore perceived concerns of preservice music education teachers across four different points in professional development. A 45-item Teacher Concerns Checklist (Borich, 2000), based upon Fuller and Bown's (1975) three-stage model of teacher development, identified respondents' levels of self-concerns, task…

Inservice education has the potential to provide teachers with knowledge and skills that are necessary to manage challenging classroom behavior and improve academic and social/emotional outcomes. To assess the effectiveness of 3 inservice programs that focused on knowledge, understanding, and/or functional-assessment interventions, we identified…

The fields of Computer Information Systems (CIS) and Information Technology (IT) are experiencing rapid change. In 2003, an analysis of IT degree programs and those of competing disciplines at 10 post-secondary institutions concluded that an information technology program is perceived differently from information systems and computer science. In…

This paper takes a large-scale social perspective in describing a national project in Australia that was premised on local school communities working together and contributing ideas for the benefit of their students, and potentially, the whole country. The project was intended to improve schools' capacity for educating boys, and in the long-term,…

This exploratory study examines the impact of a professional development program where a K-16 networked learning community approach was implemented to provide training and support for technology integration in science education. The study presents findings from a three-year project with five cohort groups that included 17 student teachers, 17…

When Palmdale School District and Pivot Learning Partners entered into their first contract in 2006, neither organization foresaw the magnitude and complexity the relationship would take over time. Pivot Learning Partners (formerly known as Springboard Schools) is a non-profit service provider that first entered the Palmdale School District…

Although literacy skills needed to engage in the economy and public life have grown, the literacy skills of many adolescents remain low. One popular approach to improving student literacy is using school-based reading coaches; however, there is little empirical evidence regarding the nature of coaching and its effectiveness in changing teacher…

Despite recent progress in reading achievement among children in primary grades, many children are not moving beyond basic decoding skills to fluency and comprehension as they go on to higher grades. To address this problem, many policymakers suggest that reading coaches -- master teachers who offer ongoing on-site instructional support for…