Teachers make the greatest impact on students--what they learn, how they learn it, and what they do with it. Decades of research clearly demonstrate that a quality teacher, more than any other factor, enables students to overcome obstacles to learning like poverty and can even erase the achievement gap. The problem is that many teachers lack the…

In order to improve students' opportunities to learn, educators need tools that can assist them to reflect on and analyze their own and others' teaching practice. Many available observation tools and protocols for studying student work are inadequate because they do not directly engage educators in core issues about rigorous content and pedagogy.…

Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, takes on teacher education in this essay published for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's white paper series "Fwd: Arresting Insights in Education." Walsh highlights a 2005 study, "Studying Teacher Education," a nearly 800-page report by a panel of the American Educational Research…

Adapted from a speech to Japanese high school students in an English track program, this essay responds to the common question, "What is the best way to learn English?" First, it is noted that English can not be learned directly from dictionaries and grammar books, by empty repetition of words and phrases with passive attitude, with fear of making…

This paper discusses the work of the Education Trust and other teams of researchers and school leaders. If focuses on one symposium on and five research studies of high-performing, high-poverty schools. The six studies provided information about best practices in school leadership, organization, and instruction. Building on scholarship from the…

Recent developments in media and communication technologies are set to revolutionize the provision of education and training. With modern technology, it is possible to deliver lectures, assignments, tutorials, simulations, and even the contents of the world's best libraries to anyone in possession of a modem and computer. Diminishing funding and…

This final report describes the activities and accomplishments of a 3-year project to enhance the knowledge and skills of special and general educators as well as parents of children having attention deficit disorder through the development of training materials and workshops. Over 15 professional development activities on the topic of attention…

This paper compared the performance of 22 seventh-grade controls in a traditional special education program with at least one period of resource room instruction to the performance of 22 students in a supportive inclusionary model program. In each group, there were 17 students with learning disabilities and 5 students with behavior disorders.…

This book discusses the outcomes of a study exploring the institutional forces that identified educational placements for children with deafness at a particular elementary school and the effects of mainstreaming students with deafness in general education classrooms. The study focused on three second-grade boys with deafness and was conducted in…

Two solutions for teaching college-level German instruction in Japan are described. The first solution is the TALK Learning System, materials designed for use in large classes. Instead of a course book, each learner has a manual in Japanese, three tool cards for each of four topics (one with dialogue patterns, a question card, and a data card), a…

Some university English as a foreign language (EFL) composition teachers in Taiwan have experimented with audiotaping their commentary on students' writing to help students revise. However, there has been little research on how effective this is for Chinese students. Therefore, a study was designed to shed light on this issue by comparing…

This final report discusses the outcomes of a project that developed, demonstrated, evaluated, and disseminated information about a specialized inservice training model to prepare early interventionists, special education teachers, and related service personnel to provide family-centered programming to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers who are…

The effectiveness of diversity training in eliminating racial stereotypes in the workplace and modifying employees' negative attitudes toward diversity was examined in a study conducted at a private nonprofit college in the San Francisco Bay area. The study sample consisted of 80 nontraditional students from 4 sections of a course titled Managing…

This 14th annual ED-MEDIA conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications/distance education. ED-MEDIA, the premiere international conference in the field, spans all disciplines and…

This publication presents a range of evidence-based strategies, procedures, and models for use with culturally and linguistically diverse students with emotional and/or behavior disorders. Chapter 1 provides an overview of issues in providing services for this population in the context of the high-stakes accountability required by the 2001 No…