286 research outputs found
Leading From the Middle: Mid-Level District Staff and Instructional Improvement
This three-year research project demonstrates that mid-level central office staff can make or break critical reform initiatives. It also provides strong recommendations for a new vision of leadership in which central office and school staff become equal partners
Teacher Learning and Instructional Change: How Formal and On-the-Job Learning Opportunities Predict Change in Elementary School Teachers\u27 Practice
Recent education reform has emphasized the importance of teacher learning in improving classroom instruction and raising student achievement. This article focuses on teachers\u27 learning opportunities, including formal professional development and on-the-job learning that occurs through interactions with colleagues. Using data from 30 elementary schools in a mid-sized urban school district, the authors concurrently explore the relationships between teachers\u27 formal professional development and on-the-job learning opportunities and instructional change. Results suggest that formal professional development and on-the-job opportunities to learn are both significantly associated with changes in teachers\u27 instructional practice in mathematics and English language arts
Conceptualizing School Leadership and Management from a Distributed Perspective: An Exploration of Some Study Operations and Measures
Managing to Lead: Reframing School Leadership and Management
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Phi Delta Kappa International is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Phi Delta Kappan
Meaningful & Sustainable School Improvement with Distributed Leadership
School leadership is broadly acknowledged to be the lynchpin for school success. Yet, amongst the countless demands that school leaders face, making wise leadership choices is increasingly challenging. On what should leaders focus their attention and how should they prioritize their improvement efforts? How can they identify, understand, and make headway on the difficult challenges that will substantially enhance the educational experiences of their students, and how can they bring their faculty together with commitment around these improvement efforts?
In this essay we lay out a research-informed framework for advancing meaningful school improvement using a distributed leadership approach.
This report was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Opinions in this paper reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, that of the funder
Three-color Sagnac source of polarization-entangled photon pairs
We demonstrate a compact and stable source of polarization-entangled pairs of
photons, one at 810 nm wavelength for high detection efficiency and the other
at 1550 nm for long-distance fiber communication networks. Due to a novel
Sagnac-based design of the interferometer no active stabilization is needed.
Using only one 30 mm ppKTP bulk crystal the source produces photons with a
spectral brightness of 1.13x10^6 pairs/s/mW/THz with an entanglement fidelity
of 98.2%. Both photons are single-mode fiber coupled and ready to be used in
quantum key distribution (QKD) or transmission of photonic quantum states over
large distances.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Infrastructure Redesign and Instructional Reform in Mathematics: Formal Structure and Teacher Leadership
Designing infrastructures to support instruction remains a challenge in educational reform. This article reports on a study of one school system\u27s efforts to redesign its infrastructure for mathematics instruction by promoting teacher leadership. Using social network and interview data from 12 elementary schools, we explore how the district\u27s infrastructure redesign efforts were internally coherent with and built upon existing infrastructure components. We then explore relations between infrastructure and school practice as captured in the instructional advice- and information-seeking interactions among school staff, finding that teacher leaders emerged as central actors and brokers of advice and information about mathematics within and between schools. Further, changes in school advice and information networks were associated with shifts in teachers\u27 beliefs about and practices in mathematics toward inquiry-oriented approaches consistent with district curriculum. We argue that the district\u27s redesign efforts to support teacher leadership coupled district curriculum and school and classroom practice in mathematics
Phase shift spectra of a fiber-microsphere system at the single photon level
We succeeded in measuring phase shift spectra of a microsphere cavity coupled
with a tapered fiber using a weak coherent probe light at the single photon
level. We utilized a tapered fiber with almost no depolarization and
constructed a very stable phase shift measurement scheme based on polarization
analysis using photon counting. Using a very weak probe light (\bar{n} = 0:41),
we succeeded in observing the transition in the phase shift spectrum between
undercoupling and overcoupling (at gap distances of 500 and 100 nm,
respectively).We also used quantum state tomography to obtain a 'purity
spectrum'. Even in the overcoupling regime, the average purity was 0.982 \pm
0.024 (minimum purity: 0.892), suggesting that the coherence of the
fiber-microsphere system was well preserved. Based on these results, we believe
this system is applicable to quantum phase gates using single light emitters
such as diamond nitrogen vacancy centers.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Building Information Modelling Energy Performance Assessment on Domestic Dwellings: A Comparative Study
Conceptualizing School Leadership and Management From a Distributed Perspective: An Exploration of Some Study Operations and Measures
A distributed perspective on school leadership and management has garnered considerable attention from policy makers, practitioners, and researchers in many countries over the past decade. However, we should be skeptical of its appeal as a measure of worth. While optimism is high with respect to taking a distributed perspective, we urge caution by arguing for more attention to research fundamentals in the form of study operations and research measures before seeking causal inferences. The question is not, does distributed leadership work? but rather, how are leadership and management related to school and classroom conditions and school outcomes? To answer this question from a distributed perspective, we need to engage study operations and measures when taking a distributed perspective in school leadership and management research. This article attempts to extend that conversation
- …