If school counseling is to continue as an ongoing dynamic profession, counselor educators must address their attention to the improvement of practitioner competencies as well as toward counselor preparation. The purpose of this paper is to share one educational approach which can facilitate movement toward achievement of these desired needs.…

Describes ways the principal can use the resources on hand more effectively to enhance student learning. (Author/JM)

Following some general examples of existing units, including a more detailed outline of the organization of McGill University's developed instructional improvement agencies, three main contributors to success are suggested and elaborated. Specific instructional improvement units are described. (Author/LBH)

Describes 14 organizations, programs, and research centers studying school communities: Academic Development Institute; Alliance for Achievement Network; ASPIRA; Center on Education in the Inner Cities; Center for Literacy; Center for Research in Human Development and Education; Center for the School Community; Coalition of Essential Schools;…

Discusses evaluation for human performance improvement and organizational success. An expanded framework that builds on the traditional four-level training evaluation framework is suggested that includes strategic and tactical planning, performance improvement, organizational development, customer satisfaction, total quality, societal…

This article reports on another $9.7 million earmarked by Congress for a school improvement program run by the Education Leaders Council (ELC), despite serious questions raised about the project. The latest earmark, contained in the omnibus fiscal 2005 spending bill adopted in November, brings total federal funding for the project, called…

This chapter discusses multiple challenges and pathways to address the margins of adult education and poses question for future consideration.

West Putnam Elementary School Principal Katherine Johnson knew she had to make some changes at her Porterville school. In 1999, the school was on California's Underperforming Schools Program list. Johnson and her team had to come up with a new school plan to raise student academic achievement. Porterville Unified School District curriculum…

Data-based decision making has been the mantra of the school reform movement since the late 1980s, but California does not yet have an effective system for collecting and using vital school information. California has taken a number of steps to address this shortcoming. These include the Public School Accountability Act of 1999 and Senate bills…

This issue brief examines the role of central office administrators in the reinvention process and what research and experience matters for expanding student learning. The brief includes examples from central office reinvention efforts currently planned or under way in Atlanta Public Schools, New York City Public Schools, and Oakland Unified…

Response to Intervention (RtI) came into the national forefront in the late 1990s as an alternate approach for identifying students with specific learning disabilities. In brief, RtI assumes that a broad system of early intervention and support is in place, one possible component of which is evaluating a student for suspected learning…

A number of activities are progressing in the Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) program, the federally funded program that the Commission administers to provide professional development to California educators. This program is part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), and continues the work that began as the Eisenhower Teacher…

Promising approaches in both policy and practice have emerged that should serve as beacons to guide professionals as they renew their determination to ensure fairness for all races and ethnicities in child serving systems. Indeed, when those systems are equitably treating children of color, then all children will benefit. The Center for Juvenile…