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 Teaching
and Learning Report – A+ presents a report from the Task Force on
Teaching and Student Achievement titled "Teaching and Learning: Meeting
the Challenge of High Standards."
Working Toward Excellence Newsletters – The WTE newsletter is published
quarterly; each issue focuses in-depth on a specific issue in education.
The newsletter is available online or via
mail at no charge.
Alabama Reading Initiative
- Evaluation
of the Alabama Reading Initiative – Final Report (275K)
By Edward Moscovitch, December, 2001
- Executive
Summary of ARI Third Year Evaluation (an online version of the Powerpoint
presentation given by the evaluator to the Alabama State Board of Education
at its February 2002 work session)
 Download
'Closing the Gap' report –A+ and the Alabama Best Practices
Center present Closing the Gap: How the Alabama Reading Initiative Is
Transforming Reading Instruction For All Students (April 2001). This
report celebrates gains made by 81 Alabama schools during the first
two complete school years of the Alabama Reading Initiative's implementation.- Alabama
Reading Initiative Promotes High Quality Professional Development
– The Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) offers a unique state model
for how teacher learning can lead to extraordinary gains in student
learning. The program has yielded significant increases in reading scores
and in the number and diversity of books read. The initiative has also
created substantial changes in how teachers teach, which has resulted
in fewer discipline problems and special education referrals.
PARCA – Links to the Public Affairs
Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) for
related school research:
- What
schools in Alabama are high performing? Read more about the Public
Affairs Research Council of Alabama study which examines student performance
in grades 3-8 in Alabama schools.
- Do
new teachers in Alabama feel prepared to teach in today's classroom?
What supports are provided to them and how helpful are those supports?
Read responses from a questionnaire distributed to all first- and second-year
teachers in Alabama's public schools during the spring of 2000.
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All new teachers in Alabama are evaluated every year during their first
three years of teaching. How
do new teachers measure up, according to their principals? Review
information on the numbers and types of novice teachers employed by
Alabama school systems in 1999 and on the ratings they were given by
the principals who eavluated them throught the Alabama Professional
Education Personnel Evaluation (PEPE) Program. The Public Affairs Research
Council's report organized PEPE data from 1999 to assist those who are
intrested in bringing about imprvement in teacher preparation, teacher
practice and the recruitment and selection of teachers.
State
Commission Reports
- The
Road to Academic Excellence, The Report of the Governor's Commission
on Instructional Improvement and Academic Excellence – Read
the report of a Commission which worked for 15 months studying and developing
recommendations about ways that the state could improve public education
for students in these specific areas: curriculum and instruction, teacher
preparation, professional development, educational leadership, assessment
and accountability, at-risk students, parental involvement and technology.
- Alabama
Success Initiative – The Alabama Success Initiative report
was developed by the Task Force on Eliminating Social Promotion and
Retention. This report highlights a comprehensive strategy that, when
implemented, should help all students be more success in school. Key
components include: pre-school, professional development for teachers
and administrators, intervention strategies, benchmarks and parental
involvement. The ultimate goal, over time, is the elimination of both
social promotion and retention.
Recently Released Reports of Interest
- TestTalk
— What Tests Can and Cannot Tell Us
The
October 2002 issue of "TestTalk," published by the Center
on Education Policy, provides useful information on assessment that
will help deepen your understanding about both the strengths and limitations
of testing.
- Louisiana
Staff Development Council Report on High-Performing, High-Poverty Schools
(32K PDF FILE)
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What role does staff development play in assisting schools with a high
percentage of children in poverty to attain exemplary academic achievement?
Review a study led by Dale Hair and published by the Louisiana Staff
Development Council that highlights professional development practices
in 12 high performing, high poverty schools in Louisiana.
- Teacher
Voices
Discover what Alabama teachers have to say about instructional leadership
and professional development issues by reading Alabama Teachers, a report
on the 2001 Education Dialogue Forums.
- The
Core Business of Principals
(423K PDF FILE)
School principals have a primary role in shaping the instructional culture
and academic performance of students, says this report by the Consortium
for Policy Research in Education. "Instructional Leadership in
a Standards-based Reform" examines the shifting responsibility
of school principals from managerial tasks to the core business of schooling,
based on research among principals implementing the America's Choice
reform model. The standards-based model emphasizes organizational support
for instructional improvement and the building of instructional capacity
through ongoing school-based professional development.
- The
Alabama Early Learning Commission Report
The Governor's Alabama
Early Learning Commission, consisting of 12 of the state's prominent
business leaders and formed in November of 2000, has created a plan
to aid Alabama's children ages birth to five. The report makes recommendations
in five different areas, outlining the costs and projected beneficial
outcomes of each. The sections include organization of services, childcare,
health, parenting, and public awareness. To view the entire report,
please visit.
- Why
Change is So Challenging for Schools: An Interview with Peter Senge
Read an interview of MIT senior lecturer and systems thinking expert
Peter
Senge by Dennis Sparks, President of the National Staff Development
Council. Senge contends that schools can change if educators really
desire
it. Change can happen by creating solutions instead of merely eliminating
problems.
- Reduce
Your Losses: Help New Teachers Become Veteran Teachers – This
report, released in June 2001 by the Southern Regional Education Board
(SREB), examines the
reasons behind the sobering statistic that, within the first five years,
nearly half of new teachers quite teaching in the state where they began
their careers.
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The Louisiana Staff Development Council's Project Advance is in no way
connected with Project Advance at Syracuse University.
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