A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students, Volume II

Provides a comprehensive review of research on the academic acceleration of gifted students

Leader Developers: Perspectives of Mentor Principals in an Administrator Preparation Program

Principal preparation programs use various components to develop candidates, including course work, core assessments, and field-based internships or practicums. The internship represents an exceptionally high leverage learning opportunity (Lochmiller, 2014). The success of the internship depends highly on the abilities of a mentor via informal instructional supervision. Mette (2020) explains that supervision has a potential transformational quality. This study explores mentorships in a university principal preparation program through the mentor’s perspective. We interviewed a sample of mentors nominated as effective by peer and program informants. We learned that mentors were deliberate in developing three specific skills -- metacognitive ability, developmental efficacy, and learning-oriented goal setting. Mentor principals described these three elements as paramount to master before becoming a principal. We discuss implications for principal preparation programs to use mentors as informal instructional supervisors and develop highly effective school principals

Perspectives of Teacher Quality: Perceptions from Secondary Educators in Private and Public Schools

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceptions of teachers regarding teacher quality. Specifically, this research study examined how the twelve high school teachers’ perceptions of teacher quality related to four research categories defining teacher quality: teacher qualifications, personal attributes, pedagogical practices, and teacher effectiveness. Specifically, this study sought to examine: 1) how perceptions of teacher quality in the private schools compared to those in the public schools; 2) how socio-economic demographics in schools affected the teachers’ perceptions of teacher quality; 3) how high school administrators evaluated teacher quality in the selected schools; and 4) how the teachers’ perceptions of teacher quality linked to the schools’ evaluation system systems. Results of this study suggest that different types of teachers in various settings discussed teacher quality in similar ways. Teachers agreed that strong teacher student relationships, content mastery and relevance were keys to quality teaching. In addition, the socio-economic status of students influenced how teachers viewed teacher quality. Surprisingly, many teachers did not discuss the inter- relationships between content standards, pedagogical practices, and teacher effectiveness, and teachers’ perceptions of teacher quality measurements did not match measurements within their respective schools

Educational Considerations, vol. 13(1) Full Issue

Educational Considerations, vol. 13(1) Winter 1986 - Full issu

Independent Evaluation of the Jim Joseph Foundation's Education Initiative Final Report

The Jim Joseph Foundation created the Education Initiative to increase the number of educators and educational leaders who are prepared to design and implement high-quality Jewish education programs. The Jim Joseph Foundation granted $45 million to three premier Jewish higher education institutions (each institution received$15 million) and challenged them to plan and implement programs that used new content and teaching approaches to increase the number of highly qualified Jewish educators serving the field. The three grantees were Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University (YU). The grant covered program operation costs as well as other costs associated with institutional capacity building. The majority of the funds (75 percent) targeted program planning and operation. The grantees designed and piloted six new master's degree and doctoral degree programs or concentrations;1 eight new certificate, leadership, and professional development programs;2 two new induction programs;3 and four new seminars within the degree programs. 4 The Education Initiative also supported financial assistance for students in eight other advanced degree programs. 5 The grantees piloted innovative teaching models and expanded their use of educational technology in the degree and professional development programs. According to the theory of change that drives the Jim Joseph Foundation's Education Initiative, five types of activities must take place if higher education institutions are to successfully enhance the Jewish education workforce. These activities include (1) improved marketing and recruitment of talented individuals into ongoing education programs, (2) a richer menu of programs requiring different commitments of time to complete and offering varying content, (3) induction programs to support program participants' transition to new employment settings, (4) well-planned and comprehensive strategies for financial sustainability, and (5) interinstitutional collaboration. As shown in Exhibit 1, the five types of activities are divided into two primary categories. The first category (boxes outlined in green) addresses the delivery of programs that provide educators and educational leaders with research-based and theory-based knowledge and vetted instructional tools. The second category (boxes outlined in orange) is not programmatic; rather, it involves sharing knowledge, building staff capabilities, enhancing management structures, and providing technological and financial support to enable the development of quality programming that is sustainable after the grant ends

Principal Preparation Programs: Perceptions Of High School Principals

There has been an abundance of research documenting perceived deficiencies in traditional principal preparation programs, but little field data have been collected. As such, the authors of this study sought to assess the satisfaction of practitioners, high school principals, with their preparation programs. Questionnaires were received from 374 participants located at schools within four southeastern states. Using descriptive and inferential statistics, data were generated and analyzed illustrating frequency of response, means, and standard deviation from 13 key questions relating to the principalship. Findings included apparent content with preparation programs in all areas of responsibility identified with the exception of preparation for addressing the needs of special populations. These findings could be of importance to universities as they reorganize principal preparation curriculum to be more connected to K-12 issues

Parental perceptions of pre-school education in Malaysia

Pre-school education in Malaysia has expanded significantly over the past twenty years and is currently the focus of increased attention within the Ministry of Education. This study explores and describes the perceptions of Malaysian parents concerning pre-school education. Guided by Bronfenbrenner\u27s theory of the ecology of human development, the study examines the potential influence of macrosystem elements on the parents\u27 perceptions, as well as the likely impact of such perceptions upon the home- pre-school mesosystem. The research was conducted with a group of 21 parents of children in their final year of preschool education. They were selected from four private pre-schools, employing a range of methodologies, located within a few kilometres of one another in Kuala Lumpur. The parents participated in guided interviews In order to record their perceptions regarding the value or function of pre-school education; the importance of a range of pre-school practices; and the role and nature of the pre-school caregiver. The interview responses underwent computer assisted analysis using the NUD*IST qualitative data analysis software. Findings indicate that Malaysian parents hold both idealised and actualised perceptions of pre-school education. The former relate to the parents\u27 image of childhood and the type of education they would like their child to receive in an ideal world, whilst the later relate to the type of education parents feel their child needs in order to meet the needs of Malaysian society. The study concludes by suggesting that parents\u27 knowledge and perceptions of pre-school education are socially constructed and should be judged for their socio-cultural appropriateness rather than their developmental appropriateness alone. Results suggest that efforts should be directed towards assisting parents to reduce the gap between their idealised and actualised perceptions by establishing closer links between the home and pre-school mesosytems

Principals\u27 leadership behaviors as perceived by teachers in at-risk middle schools.

A need for greater understanding of teachers\u27 (N= 530) perceptions of the leadership behaviors of principals in Title I middle schools (n = 13) is prevalent exists. The researcher used the Audit of Principal Effectiveness survey to collect data. The researcher also used Hierarchical Linear Modeling as the quantitative analysis. Significant teacher-level variables were teacher age, years the teacher worked for current principal, and teacher gender. Significant school-level variables were principal gender, principal teaching experience, and percentage of low-income students scoring proficient in mathematics. Principals should understand how teacher- and school-level variables affect the principals\u27 perceived leadership behaviors. This study has implications for university personnel, school district personnel, school principals, and hiring committees

What Impact Do Culturally Competent Teachers Have on the Social Inclusiveness of Their Students?

This study explored the social inclusiveness of classrooms with culturally competent teachers who were identified both by their participation in in-service diversity training and by principal nomination. The design of this study was primarily quantitative using a one-way ANOVA to analyze whether fourth and fifth grade students (N = 125) in classrooms with teachers identified as culturally competent are more inclusive in their mutual friendships than students (N = 117) in classrooms with not trained teachers at the same schools. Sociometric questionnaires were used to collect data on mutual friendships. Observations of students in lunchroom settings were also conducted. Findings from the sociometric questionnaire suggest that students with culturally competent teachers, also referred to as culturally responsive teachers in the literature, have broader and more diverse social networks than students in classrooms with not trained teachers. However, in the lunchroom settings where a given student must choose a limited number of students to sit next to at the lunch table, no notable differences between the classrooms emerged. Other than training in diversity issues, teachers in the two groups were very similar

Differentiated Reading Instruction in One Exemplary Teacher's Classroom: A Case Study

A single case study design was employed to describe the nature of one exemplary second grade teacher's differentiated reading instruction. The teacher participant was selected from a group of exemplary teachers nominated from one rural school district in southwestern Pennsylvania. Data collection consisted of classroom observations, teacher interviews, and classroom artifacts. An analysis of the data revealed that the participating teacher differentiated the following aspects of small group reading instruction: materials, time spent in small group meetings, lesson structure and focus, teacher talk, and post-reading assignments. Ongoing assessments were used as the basis for decision-making about how to differentiate each lesson. A microanalysis of teacher talk was conducted to provide insight regarding the nature of verbal scaffolding in the classroom. Teacher-student interactions were analyzed and coded at the level of utterance. The following categories were used to define the different types of talk used by the teacher to promote the independent use of strategies in reading: direct explanation, explicit modeling, invitations to participate, clarification, verification, and telling. This analysis revealed that the needs of the children created changes in the way the teacher interacted with group members