Comprehensive school reform (CSR) projects are being funded throughout the United States in a determined effort to improve the performance of public education. The multidimensional nature of comprehensive school reform presents unique challenges for explaining widely discrepant outcomes among schools. These challenges are addressed in a study of 8 CSR schools in North Carolina. Using a model developed to assess organizational change variables, evidence is presented for its efficacy in analyzing levels of organizational change states in schools and their relationship to initial progress in comprehensive school reform projects. Suggestions for individualizing support for schools are provided for educational leaders.
Secondary school organizational structures often result in a marked lack of opportunity for university faculty, teachers and teacher interns to collaborate and engage in sustained discussions about teaching and curriculum. Emerging partnership efforts between schools and teacher preparation programs have encouraged more frequent and intense involvement of undergraduate education students with schools, classrooms and teachers. This article describes the results of research related to a partnership project that linked a teacher preparation program with two high schools. Data are presented that indicate interns benefit by an increased understanding of the realities of classroom dynamics and development of instructional skills. Partnership teachers contributed to the professional development of interns and reported renewed enthusiasm for teaching. With the emergence of institutionally supported professional partnerships, teacher education programs and K-12 schools have an opportunity to unite efforts to improve the quality of education for students in both educational contexts.
A critical challenge to improving the quality of teaching and student performance outcomes is to reconsider how educators are initially trained and provided opportunities for professional renewal and retooling throughout their career. Professional development as discussed in this paper is considered across the career span of all educators and as it applies in specific educational organizations, i.e., preK to 12~ grade schools and schools of education. Beginning with a number of critical assumptions about professional development, the authors suggest a framework for viewing professional development that acknowledges the complex, interdependent roles and responsibilities educators assume in the classroom, the institution, and the profession. The goals and specific outcomes are informed by Goodlad's moral dimensions and suggest an alternative approach to professional development that include important considerations for teacher preparation institutions.
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