Educators know that students learn better when their teacher considers carefully how young people learn best. Yet, when administrators plan professional development for teachers, the author claims, they often forget to consider how teachers learn best. As principal of a private K-8 school, Scott arranges professional learning for her teachers in a…

The author looks at school reform in light of his experiences documenting effective public education in classrooms across the United States. Observing in an inner-city 1st grade classroom, he sees a teacher who is knowledgeable, resourceful, and particularly effective with her students. He notes that none of the current high-profile reform ideas…

Teachers can make better use of data when they work together than when they do it alone. Creating the conditions for such collaboration is a tall order. This article describes the idea behind the collaborative inquiry approach. It also mentions several studies that indicate its effectiveness. Tips on how collaborative inquiry can be implemented…

The importance of teachers' influence is confirmed by a recent survey the author and his colleagues conducted of more than 300 teachers and administrators representing a mix of urban, rural, and suburban schools. In analyzing responses to an open-ended question about the greatest influences on respondents' professional practice, they found that…

Many recent studies on teacher learning are grounded in the works of Rosenholtz (1989), Ball and Cohen (1999), and Putnam and Borko (2000). Their research, collectively, suggests that teacher learning occurs in at least two realms: the individual and the interpersonal. In the individual realm, teachers gain knowledge about content and pedagogy,…

The Executive Director of ASCD joins a group of U.S. educators traveling to Israel on an education mission sponsored by the America-Israel Friendship League. The educators visit the Gesher al Hawadi school, which was established by the Hand in Hand Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel. Located in an Arab town, the school has equal numbers of…

This manuscript provides a model and an assignment based on the model that allows emerging leaders to examine the purity of their heart, the accuracy of their thoughts, whether they operate from reasoned emotions, effective dispositions, words seasoned with grace, appropriate actions, and habits that engender honorable leadership character…

This descriptive study investigates the development of a district leadership coaching program. Specifically, the study examines the creation of a coaching program for elementary principals, the first six months of monthly meetings between the coaches and district leaders, and the perceived utility of the meetings by the district coaches.…

Holding closed sessions in school board meetings to reach major policy decisions is generally discouraged; but, school boards occasionally use this tactic if conflict and tension arise. Therefore, the questions of "how often does a Board of Education encounter conflict and tension" and "how is the decision made to schedule a closed session to…

Contemporary school administrators play a daunting array of roles. They must be educational visionaries and change agents, instructional leaders, curriculum and assessment experts, budget analysts, facility managers, special program administrators, and community builders. New expectations for schools--that they successfully teach a broad range of…

The use of coaching as a developmental methodology has been instituted as a way to develop leadership in schools in Scotland as elsewhere in the UK. While there are studies that examine the skills and impact of coaching, there is only limited discussion of the process of coaching and the role and experiences of the coaches. This article examines…

Educators should strive to demonstrate the beauty and wonder of mathematics against the students. The experiences of adult population with their teachers during school days are mentioned.

This paper offers highlights from the final report of Stanford's School Leadership Study, which should be available in January 2007. It discusses various policy and resource factors that enhance or impede the implementation of exemplary programs that develop and support principals. Among the research questions that guided this study were a set…

In an effort to increase the knowledge about professional development programs that promote strong instructional leaders, the Wallace Foundation recently commissioned a study of innovative principal professional development programs and the policy and funding mechanisms that support them. In fall 2003, the foundation awarded a grant to a team of…

In this paper, the authors describe a cost analysis framework and approach that can be easily understood by a range of relevant audiences and that has been successfully used to estimate the costs of a range of professional development initiatives. The paper illustrate its use by drawing on the authors' experience applying the framework in three…