Examines recent implementation of the controversial Massachusetts Educator Certification Tests and the educational, legal, and public policy issues in the implementation of a teacher testing program. The paper focuses on: the contexts for teacher testing; the tests themselves; the quality of the tests; and legal issues in teacher testing and…

Examines events contributing to the decline in numbers of African American teachers, identifying their importance to all students and describing how teacher educators are working to increase teacher diversity. The paper introduces "Teach for Arkansas," which advances diversity and increases the minority teaching force by forming…

A study examined types of positions, job responsibilities, and training backgrounds of 203 outdoor/adventure leaders. Survey responses indicated an increase in female outdoor leaders, but they received less pay than their male counterparts. Personal experience, professional workshops, and certifications were listed more frequently than academic…

Responds to Goodlad's article on teacher education's journey over the past century and its current malaise, suggesting that the rest of the journey is up to teacher education faculty, their university colleagues, and partners within communities and schools who must work to improve education. Describes Massachusetts' experience in attempting to…

The use of portfolio assessment in the principal preparation programs of Southwest Baptist University (Missouri), Stephen F. Austin State University (Texas), and five other universities is described. Generally, portfolios are used for encouragement of professional growth through self-assessment, for external judgment of principal effectiveness,…

Adopting the concept of multiple constituencies as an approach to organizational effectiveness, this chapter identifies key constituents and highlights areas and circumstances in which these constituents have an impact on research and assessment of professional schools. (Contains 1 table.)

In May 2000, a class action lawsuit on behalf of California's public school students, Williams v. State of California, was filed in state court in an effort to make the state address inequities in its public schools. The central issue of the case was students' access to the "bare essentials" of public education: qualified teachers,…

Academic institutions worldwide are constantly trying to refine or even reinvent their Information Systems (IS) curricula to address the needs of industry and government. As many IS curricula emerge, a number of them do not satisfy well recognized standards and even lack critical components. Furthermore, a highly competitive Information Technology…

Six years ago, the Division of Education at Indiana University East began the process of developing a performance-based program consistent with its division's conceptual framework, the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) principles, and Indiana state standards. One component of the state mandate is that all teachers…

In the last decade, the education and policy communities in California have undertaken a major effort to reform the preparation of public school teachers. At the heart of this work is quality education for all children and high-quality teacher education. With the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 2042 in 1998, the state has set in motion the building of…

Contemporary research on teaching indicates that teachers are powerful contributors to students' academic achievement, though the set and interrelationships of characteristics that make for high-quality and effective teaching have yet to be satisfactorily determined. Nevertheless, on the basis of the extant research and a vision of exemplary…

The purpose of this study was to determine if an association existed between student achievement scores and classroom practices used among third-grade teachers in Upper East Tennessee. The variables included classroom environment, instructional context, and social context, employing developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). Teacher…

In October 2007, EdSource hosted a policy convening in response to findings from the "Getting Down to Facts" research project. These four briefs were prepared by a working group of district Collaborative members to inform the dialogue of this "Getting from Facts to Policy" conference. They advocate for new state policy in the…

The "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: state government. This Alabama edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the first of what will be an annual look at the status of state policies…

This paper describes the process of principal licensure reform in Iowa. Upon adoption of the ISLLC standards, the state department of education required revision of all principal preparation programs to conform to state code and guidelines developed by an external review panel. This paper analyzes the review process and compares five programs that…