"Despite recent progress in reading achievement among children in primary grades, many children are not moving beyond basic decoding skills to fluency and comprehension as they go on to higher grades. To address this problem, many policymakers suggest that reading coaches - master teachers who offer ongoing on-site instructional support for teachers - can improve teachers' practice and students' literacy skills. RAND researchers evaluated the middle school reading coach program in Florida to answer these questions: How is the program being implemented by the state, districts, schools, and individual coaches? What is the impact of coaching on teachers' practice and students' achievement in reading and mathematics? What features of reading coach models and practices are associated with better outcomes?"--BOOK JACKET.
"Word study is an approach to teaching phonics, vocabulary, and spelling that is based on a developmental model described by Henderson and his students. Given the reciprocal nature between reading and writing, phonics, spelling and vocabulary are integrated in instruction. Teachers understand that this word study approach integrates phonics, spelling, and vocabulary, and have challenged us to share concrete examples of how teachers organize and implement word study and how literacy educators in universities and school districts conduct professional learning for word study. The primary goal, then, is to make word study work for our students. The authors of each chapter show how literacy leaders and teacher educators guide others in a wide variety of educational settings. Stories in this volume capture classroom conversations, describe professional learning communities, and present coaching scenarios that will resonate with reader's experiences"--
The need for continued research at the middle level is clear and urgent. The previous volumes in this Handbook series testify to this urgency. While quantitative studies continue to be essential, there is a critical need to understand the complexities of the middle level community. One way to capture the rich, diverse mosaic of the voices and experiences of middle level participants and stakeholders is to use narrative inquiry methodology. The intent of this volume in The Handbook is to give voice to and broaden our understanding of the wide variety of participants and stakeholders who weave through the middle level. Such participants and stakeholders may include middle level teachers, school psychologists and counselors, students, parents, administrators, middle level researchers, research foundations, and community groups. In addition to hearing directly from these groups, this volume will focus on the intricate webs, connections and questions that these narratives hold and frame them within current middle level research, theory, and practice. Ultimately this volume will highlight the nuance, diversity and future directions that research may need to explore.
Interest in and knowledge of leadership and learning, separately and together, is an international and continuing phenomenon. This book adds to a somewhat under-researched aspect of the field. It focuses both on a particular form of leadership – teacher leadership, and on a particular form of learning – professional development. It considers the connection between teacher leadership and professional development and the first chapter relates this connection to a ‘Leadership for Learning’ conceptual framework, developed through an international, three-year project. The book’s chapters explore teacher leadership and professional development from a number of perspectives, giving rise to three points of particular significance. Firstly the chapters show that, either by accident or design, there is a growing cadre of teacher leaders emerging from a multitude of professional development activities and initiatives. Secondly, a number of new conceptual frameworks are put forward, alongside the adaption and development of extant ones that add to the ever-increasing theorisation of educational leadership and professional development literature. Thirdly, the chapters provide evidence of the connections between leadership and learning as conceptualised in the ‘Leadership for Learning’ framework. This book was originally published as a special issue of Professional Development in Education.
Put the focus of education back where it belongs—on learning! Do you feel bogged down by endless administrative tasks? Do you wish you could focus more on what truly matters—learning? Learnership provides both insight and solutions for moving past the distractions and becoming a learning leader. Cathy Toll illustrates this transformational process through activities and focused "learning conversations." Toll uses supported actions, theory and research, real-life stories, and narrative bibliography to explain how the practice of learnership can be implemented on a daily basis. This book offers: Practices to help teachers improve their effectiveness using problem-solving techniques More effective ways to approach data, testing, and accountability Strategies for supporting Professional Learning Teams (PLT) and educational coaches Learnership is an invaluable resource for principals and teachers in school-based leadership roles, or anyone who wishes to focus on school improvement and their own personal growth as a leader in education.
The fed. gov¿t. has invested billions of dollars to improve student academic performance, and many teachers and researchers are trying to determine the most effective instructional practices with which to accomplish this. This is a study of strategies used to prepare students to meet state academic achievement standards. This report answered: (1) What types of instructional practices are schools and teachers most frequently using to help students achieve state academic standards, and do those instructional practices differ by school characteristics? (2) What is known about how standards-based accountability systems have affected instructional practices? (3) What is known about instructional practices that are effective in improving student achievement?
A must-have resource for coaches, leaders, and teams, this book covers approaches for boosting professional growth and macrostrategies that are responsive to student needs. Learn how to offer targeted feedback to teachers, empowering them to identify how they can improve their knowledge and skill. Step-by-step guidelines will help teachers increase their performance on the 280 research-based strategies from Becoming a Reflective Teacher.
This third book in the Information Age book series, International Research on School Leadership, focuses on the changing nature of instructional leadership in the 21st century. Our goal is to examine instructional leadership from multiple educational and international perspectives. Unlike many leadership books that focus on conceptualizations and personal narratives, the seven chapters provide empirical evidence of how instructional leadership is evolving in the 21st century. From the effective schools research of the 1980s to today’s relentless calls for improved student performance, attention has focused on the instructional leadership roles and responsibilities of school principals, headteachers, and educational system leaders. The emphasis on student performance has gone global as evidenced by highly-publicized international studies, such as the Trends in International Math and Science Studies (TIMSS) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), comparing student achievement in different countries. These developments have had substantial effects on school leaders, especially building-level principals and headteachers. Rather than being the only ones overseeing school improvement aimed at increasing student learning, many school administrators are distributing leadership responsibilities to other administrators and teachers on their campuses. To fully understand instructional leadership in the 21st century, the book examines three important dimensions of instructional leadership: (1) the current context for turning around low-performing schools, increasing teacher effectiveness, and providing equitable outcomes for all students, (2) international perspectives of instructional leadership development, particularly the value of teacher coaching and leadership development for aspiring and practicing school leaders in a developing country, and (3) the obstacles instructional leaders confront as they deal with fiscal constraints, political pressure, diverse student populations, and high-stakes standards-based reforms.
Gifted students spend most of their time in the regular classroom, yet few general education teachers have the specialized training to address their unique needs. This book provides the structures, processes, and resources needed to facilitate GT (Gifted/Talented) coaching as a means of building capacity among classroom teachers to identify, serve, and teach gifted and high-potential learners. Guided by best practices and research in professional learning, this resource provides the steps, strategies, and tools needed to create and sustain effective coaching practices designed to maximize access to advanced learning and differentiation throughout a school. Bolstered by downloadable resources, chapters address how to support, stretch, and sustain teachers’ instructional practices through a sequence of co-thinking, co-planning, and reflection that emphasizes ongoing and sustainable professional learning. Outlining a step-by-step guide for the coaching process, this valuable resource equips gifted and talented coaches with tools to support teachers to meet the needs and reveal talent among gifted and high-potential students through differentiation in the regular education classroom.
In Reading Researchers in Search of Common Ground, Second Edition, Rona F. Flippo revisits her groundbreaking Expert Study, in which she set out to find common ground among experts in the much-fragmented field of reading research. The original edition, featuring contributions from participants in the Expert Study, commentary from additional distinguished literacy scholars with specialized experiences and vantage points from which to view it, and recommendations for use of its findings, was published in 2001 and has become a classic in the field. The Expert Study’s findings and discussions related to it remain provocative, viable, and highly relevant. Taking a fresh look at it, and its current implications for literacy education and common ground in light of the newest thinking and research of today, the Second Edition includes four new chapters from leaders in the field who discuss the Study from their unique vantage points (literacy trends, emergent writing development, a comprehensive literacy curriculum, and a comparative analysis of the study’s findings and recommendations). It is a must-read resource for the entire literacy community − researchers, teacher educators, graduate students, administrators, practitioners, and policymakers.
