Describes a structure for designing staff development activities focusing on preventive strategies and positive relationships with all students. Positive discipline is based on optimism, respect, trust, and intentionality--essential ingredients of flourishing teacher-student relationships. Includes eight references. (MLH)

This article describes Wellness Weekend workshops, a collaborative effort between Texas A & M University and 13 Texas school districts. Eighty participants, including principals, teachers, support staff, and central office administrators received a literal and physical immersion into the concepts of health promotion. (IAH)

Efforts to improve American high schools must center on their most fundamental deficiencies. Out of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's High School Futures Planning Consortium have evolved experience-based principles (outlined in sidebars) that other school leaders can adapt for improving their schools' organization,…

This article describes a six-year effort to link inservice training for experienced teachers with teacher preservice and induction for the novice teacher. It provides a rationale for using staff development training to strengthen preservice and induction programs, and discusses program goals, training components, program outcomes, and…

Critically reviews the major school reform studies. Apparently, billions have been wasted on poorly conceived, but politically popular reform movements that have sapped schoolpeoples' energies. Two reform-inhibiting factors (educators and politicians'"intuitive wisdom" and a weak empirical knowledge base) might be overcome by initiating…

The contributions are reviewed of the federal education block grant--Chapter Two of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981--to local educational improvement. Educational technology and staff and curricular development have been enhanced by the block grant, but improvements remain modest, with depth of impact traded for breadth.…

Four authors reflect on the life of Madeline Hunter, who was a recipient of the National Staff Development Council's Contribution to Staff Development Award. The articles focus on how Madeline Hunter affected their personal and professional lives over the years. (SM)

Teacher preparation, a career-long enterprise, is conducted through reflecting on practice, receiving advice from other teachers, reading, and participating in inservice education. For designers of inservice education, appropriateness of learning activities can be assessed by examining criteria such as teacher needs, trainers' desire to help…

Three levels of staff development were provided to 300 elementary teachers to train them in curriculum compacting for high ability students. Teachers eliminated about half of the content for targeted students. Teachers receiving the most intensive training created higher quality compactor forms for students and used more replacement strategies and…

Staff development planners, trainers, and evaluators can increase the impact of the staff development activities when they view their work from multiple perspectives using the Centric Reflection Model. The model offers a visual representation of various types of reflection that can occur in training design, delivery, and evaluation. (SM)

This article offers six training suggestions for preparing paraprofessionals to work successfully with students having disabilities in an inclusive setting. These include providing preservice training through a centralized interdisciplinary training team, modeling the use of appropriate behavior management techniques, and communicating the…

An effective staff development method for child caregivers is a workshop series combining research-based knowledge, interactive resources, and experiential learning. New York's experience demonstrates the importance of training the trainer; paying attention to adult education principles; and forming coalitions with local child-care councils,…

Notes that early care and education professionals interact with many adults, and that the quality of these interactions can be central to the effectiveness of their role. Lists resources for developing effective adult communication skills. (ET)

Many school districts are acknowledging staff development's dismal record. Inservice programs traditionally operate on a deficit training model, promote awareness without classroom strategies, and are offered by traveling "experts." Teachers need time and opportunity to direct their own professional development program and "mess…

Explores the advantages and difficulties of offering information literacy programs to academic staff who work outside the classroom, and the feasibility of integrating sessions into the workplace. Topics include the library's role, the institution's role, exploring user needs, and suggestions for promoting staff information literacy. (Author/LRW)