Describes the Professional Improvement Commitment, a written agreement developed between teacher and evaluator/supervisor at the end of a supervision/evaluation cycle, designed to increase teacher effectiveness. (MM)

Three articles address various issues concerning staff development. Topics discussed include challenges facing professional development in higher education; who has responsibility for staff development; and implications for staff development based on a survey of Non-Advanced Further Education (NAFE) in England and Wales. (LRW)

Several states have recently commissioned special task forces to investigate and report on the status of women litigants, attorneys, and court employees. The reports present law schools with an urgent challenge and exciting opportunity to rethink and reconstruct legal education. (Author/MSE)

Proposes the use of a computer program called "Slo-Write" that slows word processing down to one character every five seconds for use by word processing burnouts. (NKA)

Describes a workshop conducted at the University of Pittsburgh for chemical engineering students regarding graduate education opportunities. Reviews the purposes of the workshop, benefits of getting a graduate degree, and provides a sample of the questions discussed by the invited panelists. (TW)

A study of the effect of reading a recent clinical study on pediatricians', pediatric residents', and family practitioners' decisions concerning treatment of a common, potentially serious problem revealed a considerable influence but physician difficulty in using probability data and reliance on intuition rather than calculation. (MSE)

Shares the experiences of a teacher educator who, upon teaching language arts every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon for a year, observed numerous reading and writing language experiences. (HOD)

Presents two articles describing objectives for the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) in developmental terms emphasizing intellectual maturity, professional life-styles and values, and professional growth. Looks at future trends affecting student affairs and advocates systematic confrontation of these forces through staff development…

Discusses expectations of technical writing from the perspectives of engineers engaged in varied academic and business activities. (MM)

Reports results of a survey of National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) members (N=509 representing a 51 percent return rate). Personal, educational, employment, and professional factors affecting members' role/status as professional biology educators are considered. (JN)

This document contains resolution text adopted by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in July 1998 regarding Redesigning Low-Performing Schools. A Question & Answer section follows the resolution, addressing the following issues: (1) Union support for redesign or closure of low-performing schools; (2) Indicators of low-performing schools…

The Merck Institute for Science Education (MISE) was founded in 1993 to demonstrate that virtually all students could reach high levels of scientific literacy. MISE formed partnerships with four public school districts where Merck has major facilities and a history of providing employee volunteers and supporting local science education…

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school principals' and teachers' perceptions of the current issues in middle school reading education and to identify the sources of information that these educators use and find helpful to keep informed reading issues. Participants were employed in the 14 middle schools of the Knox County School…

In Chapter Five, Alisa Belzer, Cassandra Drennon and Cristine Smith provide an overview of the challenges facing state-level professional development systems. The authors begin the chapter with a brief history of professional development in adult basic education, noting shifts in the funding and priority of professional development in the field.…

In early January 2003, "Education Week" released a new report on the status of teaching in the United States and concluded that many states are taking steps to recruit and retain skilled teachers, but few efforts focus on the schools where these teachers are needed most. Drawing upon a large national database, "Quality Counts…