This article reports on a case study conducted in an urban post-primary school setting, which investigated a teaching and learning group, called a T&L Club, as a model of sustainable professional development for teachers. The group consisted of 18 members from a whole staff of 90 teachers and had been in existence for four years at the time of…

In the 21st century, increased school accountability has sharpened the focus of school and district leaders on improving instructional practice to raise student achievement. The implementation of professional leaning communities (PLCs) is one improvement effort in which schools establish collaborative cultures focused on increasing student…

Sustained professional development can support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) reform. The authors describe a 3-year study of sustained professional development for 3 diverse urban schools across the salient factors of fidelity of implementation of project-based learning, development of professional learning communities,…

Today's grading practices mirror those of the early 1900s, and despite myriad research suggesting they are invalid, unreliable, and a hindrance to student learning, many teachers continue detrimental practices such as using 100-point percentage scales averaging all academic and nonacademic factors together into a single grade, and using grades to…

This qualitative critical multi-case study examines the nature of resistance as it emerges within the work of two urban secondary teachers acting as teacher educators, each teaching a secondary teacher preparation course within their own respective school context. Both research sites are discursively and functionally similar in terms of their…

This report investigates professional knowledge and learning demands associated with high school reform initiatives, and corresponding opportunities for teacher development, emphasizing literacy and mathematics. It examines how teachers' learning in selected reform-specific areas is facilitated or impeded by internal school features and by the…