This final report describes the federally-funded Transition Challenge-North Carolina Project (TRAC-NC), a project that prepared 45 newly qualified individuals to serve students with low-incidence disabilities over the last four years. The project provides: (1) add-on certification and/or master's degree training to persons preparing to teach…

This monograph describes the Curriculum Inquiry Cycle (CIC), a professional development process that supports educators in making curriculum and instruction decisions responsive to state standards, local needs, and student characteristics. It is designed to improve learning and teaching, with the classroom as the central focus. The CIC has four…

Working with in service science/mathematics teachers at the Aga Khan University Institute of Educational Development, Karachi, Pakistan we find that even though the teachers take aboard innovative ideas, they find it challenging to implement the newly acquired ideas primarily because of their inadequate subject matter knowledge. In this paper we…

This paper reports on teachers? practical knowledge [PK] about peer interactions [PI] in learning mathematics. The focus is on high school teachers who consistently engaged students PI in their teaching. Data consisted of interviews and classroom observations. Findings indicate that these teachers have PK of students? roles in PI and learning…

This brief notes that very few states have developed comprehensive policies to improve and support their teaching force as they implement other education reforms. In creating a coherent system of teacher support, one important place to begin is with the state board of education, which has broad authority over teacher preparation and licensure.…

This paper explores relationships among grade point average (GPA), SAT scores, and Praxis I and II scores for traditional undergraduate preservice teachers, describing the development of an instrument to assess teaching skills. Participants were students from eight graduating classes at Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania, from 1994-2001…

This monograph, the report of the 21st Century Literacy Summit held in April 2005, presents a working definition for this emerging field, and details strategic priorities and recommendations that were the summit's major outcomes. The five strategic priorities--(1) Develop a Strategic Research Agenda; (2) Raise Awareness and Visibility of the…

Recent research explaining the influence of teacher knowledge and beliefs on instruction tends to illustrate what teachers cannot do by describing their limited beliefs about mathematics or gaps in mathematics knowledge. Those studies illustrating what teachers can do tend to focus on one teacher. This paper describes what nine secondary level…

Teachers' scientific knowledge about societal science issues must be one of the prerequisites for the process of science teaching. Innovation in science teaching and its implications for students' scientific literacy depends on the understanding that teachers bring with them into the classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate how…

In an effort to develop a contextually-based evaluation of teacher competence, a three-year study was undertaken that focused on the classroom practices of beginning science teachers and beginning science teachers' perceptions and reflections of the teacher competence evaluation. Data related to instructional skills and changes in the growth of…

This study examined the influence of the student teaching program within the College of Education at the University of Bahrain on the prior beliefs and attitudes of 120 student teachers. A 24-item questionnaire was constructed, based on dilemmas of teaching and learning (knowledge and curriculum, the teacher's role, and the teacher-student…

This study combined survey data with qualitative analysis to explore the preservice preparation of teachers of English language learners (ELLs). The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education disseminated surveys to member institutions and Web site users, examining the breadth and depth of preparation programs for such teachers. The…

Over the past decade, education reforms have raised the educational bar for all children in the United States--including newcomers. These reforms place tremendous pressures on children and teachers. In addition to mastering the content-area curriculum, children must become skilled users of language. They must be highly competent in reading and…

This paper reports on a study of the relationship between teacher evaluation scores in a school implementing knowledge- and skills-based pay and classroom student achievement. The study occurred in a California charter elementary school that was 100 percent Title I, 100 percent free/reduced lunch, and had predominantly limited English speaking…

This volume seeks to identify the changes in teaching and learning foreign languages that are likely to be encountered in the next century and to describe the role that teachers, students, and administrators play in controlling such change. This volume seeks to respond to these questions in a unified and insightful manner and provide perspective…