The authors of this article are engaged in an ongoing pilot implementation and study of the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) Educator Growth and Development Cycle, known as EGDC. LAUSD implemented the EGDC pilot in the 2011-12 school year, focusing on a small subset of volunteering school administrators and teachers. The district's…

The purpose of this study is to explore the ways in which five educational leaders make use of online social network sites (SNSs) for their personal and professional learning. Specifically, I focus on how participants use social networking tools to create and maintain online learning communities, how they interact within these communities, and how…

Financial aid officers play a vital role in assisting prospective and current college students in enrolling and graduating from college. This study explores the competencies that financial aid officers need to be successful in their jobs. A survey of thirty competencies was distributed to 508 practicing financial aid officers in the Western United…

Literacy or instructional coaches are becoming increasingly important in schools at all grade levels (kindergarten through grade 12). Because this is a growing professional leadership role, there is a new excitement about possible improvements to literacy instruction and increases in student achievement that may result from having formalized,…

This study explored the influence of a 12-hour professional learning community for family child care providers in an urban Midwest city on the participants' beliefs and practices. A secondary purpose was to explore the potential of the professional learning community as a format for professional development of family child care providers. Data for…

The purpose of this quantitative action research study was to examine intervention specialists' self-reported knowledge about certain evidence-based practices, implementation of practices, and how intervention specialists are learning about these practices in educating students with autism. The population of this study included 49 intervention…

"Teachers Learning: Professional Development and Education" is part of The Cambridge Education Research series, edited by senior colleagues at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, which has a longstanding tradition of involvement in high quality, innovative teacher education and continuing professional development.…

The 2012-2013 school year represents a pivotal juncture for DC Public Schools. Last spring, Mayor Gray and Chancellor Kaya Henderson introduced "A Capital Commitment," their ambitious plan to dramatically accelerate student achievement in the district over the next five years by providing all of their students with a safe, academically…

The 2012-2013 school year represents a pivotal juncture for DC Public Schools. Last spring, Mayor Gray and Chancellor Kaya Henderson introduced "A Capital Commitment," their ambitious plan to dramatically accelerate student achievement in the district over the next five years by providing all of their students with a safe, academically…

Bourdieu's concept of habitus has increasingly been used in research in the sports coaching field and offers a useful concept for understanding how experience comes to shape coaching practice. In this article, we begin by outlining the use of habitus in the sports coaching literature and provide a brief description of it and its relationship…

Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center is a philanthropic project that has received considerable funding and close attention from an American corporation for nearly 20 years. That marks a sharp departure from the typical three-and-out funding scheme that so many foundations take with their enterprises. It will continue to receive…

This article argues that digital games and school-based literacy practices have much more in common than is reported in the research literature. We describe the role digital game paratexts--ancillary print and multimodal texts about digital games--can play in connecting pupils' gaming literacy practices to "traditional" school-based literacies…

Blended learning exists at the intersection between traditional face-to-face instruction and online learning, although to what extent each component is employed is open to interpretation. The ratio between offline and online instruction can vary widely from school to school, but both elements must be present in order to qualify as true blended…

This article contains important messages for all those with an interest in enhancing the effectiveness of professional development supported by websites. It is informed by the findings of a Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) funded evaluation of the use and effectiveness of three websites whose development the TDA had supported.…

The increasing cultural, linguistic, and developmental diversity of today's classrooms demands more inclusive approaches to schooling, but classroom teachers often report feeling unprepared for inclusive education. This article reports some lessons learned from the Inclusive Practice Project, a teacher education reform project that has developed…