Explores aspects of implementing an elementary professional development school (PDS) with a faculty of 80 teachers over a 1-year period. Findings of this ethnographic case study report the visions of teachers in this PDS, the processes that impacted the sharing of teachers' visions, and the PDS efforts that encouraged teachers to explicate and…

Gathered data from 550 principals, 42% of the principals in Alabama, about demographics, job preparation, perceptions of the job, and estimated competence levels for success as a principal. Responses indicate that the job of principal has become very demanding and complex. Findings also show that the majority of surveyed principals plan on…

Studied an elementary school in Casper, Wyoming, that functions without a principal. Each of the identified responsibilities of the principal is assigned to one or two individuals. Teacher teams appear to handle management responsibilities rather successfully, but are not addressing many of the leadership responsibilities of building principals.…

Studied the degree to which various supervisory theories are dominant in contemporary instructional supervision textbooks through the analysis of 12 texts. Results indicate that theoretical orientations consistent with evaluation-based theories are found in seven of the textbooks, with more clinically based theories dominant in the other five.…

Studied the process by which university teachers arrived at positive perceptions of computer assisted instruction (CAI) through a survey completed by 63 college teachers in Singapore. Results show that knowledge of CAI is a dominant factor influencing the perceived usefulness of CAI. (SLD)

Analyzed academic achievement scores of 115 African American students referred for psychological examination. Although tests purported to measure the same mathematics or reading constructs, statistically significant mean differences were present in four of six comparisons. Reading comprehension measures shared the lowest amount of common variance.…

Examined the classification agreement of risk status across alternative behavior rating methods for 80 preschool children and their teachers and studied target behavior selection. Compared the Social Skills Rating System (F. Gresham and S. Elliott, 1990) to a structured teacher interview. Overall, classification agreement in each comparison was…

Modeled the relationship between student career aspiration and educational productivity in science teaching. The structural equation model was cross-validated by the seventh grade data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth. Interprets statistical findings in terms of student aptitude-attributes, instructional characteristics, and…

Explored professional development needs related to demographic characteristics of principals and examined the relationship of professional development needs and self-reported job performance ratings. Responses of 140 principals show a positive relationship between professional development needs and self-reported job performance ratings. (SLD)

Examined the historical roots and present significance for those on the front lines of school desegregation through a case study of the Columbus, Georgia schools. Findings show that the demands of white constituencies and needs of white students remained the priority. (SLD)

Studied the impact of technology specialists on the use of technology among teachers in rural school districts in Georgia. Interviews with five technology specialists show that they provide assistance to teachers through staff development, technical assistance, and administrative support. (SLD)

Examined the reactions of students to an educational psychology course designed to be constructivist, situated, and socially mediated. Response of 34 graduate students to a questionnaire suggest that most students believed class activities were helpful to their understanding of course content and learning of new teaching strategies. (SLD)

Studied effects of a constructivist and interdisciplinary block of methods courses on the self-efficacy in mathematics of 73 preservice teachers. Significant differences were found between pretest and posttest results. Discusses implications for teacher education programs. (SLD)

Assessed the use and perceptions of techniques used to evaluate graduates of National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education accredited institutions through a survey completed by 107 deans/directors of education at such institutions. Findings identify the five most highly rated methods and show the use of mostly traditional, but some…

Studied the impact of aberrant response behaviors, such as guessing, sleeping, and cheating, on ability parameter estimates in the Rasch model. Results from a mathematics test administered to 5,200 fourth and sixth graders indicate that the invariance properties of the Rasch model ability estimates increase when person-fit statistics are larger…