Teacher Evaluation and the Problem of Professional Development

During the past 10 to 15 years, nearly every state and school district across the nation has begun to dramatically overhaul their evaluation systems for teachers. Such evaluation systems are ultimately aimed at improving teachers’ instructional practices. However, the evidence on the efficacy and effectiveness of these systems is weak and equivocal at best. One of the major factors associated with the lack of impact of these systems is the troublesome relationship between evaluation and professional development – the opportunities for teachers to learn and improve their practice in response to and beyond the process of evaluation itself. Policies governing teacher evaluation systems tend to make only vague and weak provisions for professional development, and they fail to ensure that these opportunities are of high quality and of value in improving practice. If states are to improve the effectiveness of their teacher evaluation systems, they should make the provision of high quality professional development to all teachers a key element of these systems. Without more attention to professional development as a key complement to evaluation, recently developed teacher evaluation systems will likely fail to improve teachers’ practices in the ways theorized by their proponents

District Workforce Development and Instructional Capacity: A Strategic Perspective

Paper presented at the annual American Educational Research Association Conference, New York City, New York, March 24-28, 2008.Some depictions of human resource (HR) functions tend to see connections to core missions, e.g., teaching and learning, as a “hub and spoke” arrangement with HR functions such as recruitment, selection, induction, professional development, and so on. Clearly, the gap between strategic intentions and practice is a challenge across public and private sectors and across 3 industries. We also suspect that the lack of evidence of strategic practice in school districts may have something to do with limited conceptualizations of strategic human resource management (SHRM) that could otherwise lead to observations from which theorizing and evaluation can take place

How effects on health equity are assessed in systematic reviews of interventions.

BACKGROUND: Enhancing health equity has now achieved international political importance with endorsement from the World Health Assembly in 2009.  The failure of systematic reviews to consider effects on health equity is cited by decision-makers as a limitation to their ability to inform policy and program decisions.  OBJECTIVES: To systematically review methods to assess effects on health equity in systematic reviews of effectiveness. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the following databases up to July 2 2010: MEDLINE, PsychINFO, the Cochrane Methodology Register, CINAHL, Education Resources Information Center, Education Abstracts, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Index to Legal Periodicals, PAIS International, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Digital Dissertations and the Health Technology Assessment Database. We searched SCOPUS to identify articles that cited any of the included studies on October 7 2010. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included empirical studies of cohorts of systematic reviews that assessed methods for measuring effects on health inequalities. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Data were extracted using a pre-tested form by two independent reviewers. Risk of bias was appraised for included studies according to the potential for bias in selection and detection of systematic reviews.  MAIN RESULTS: Thirty-four methodological studies were included.  The methods used by these included studies were: 1) Targeted approaches (n=22); 2) gap approaches (n=12) and gradient approach (n=1).  Gender or sex was assessed in eight out of 34 studies, socioeconomic status in ten studies, race/ethnicity in seven studies, age in seven studies, low and middle income countries in 14 studies, and two studies assessed multiple factors across health inequity may exist.Only three studies provided a definition of health equity. Four methodological approaches to assessing effects on health equity were identified: 1) descriptive assessment of reporting and analysis in systematic reviews (all 34 studies used a type of descriptive method); 2) descriptive assessment of reporting and analysis in original trials (12/34 studies); 3) analytic approaches (10/34 studies); and 4) applicability assessment (11/34 studies). Both analytic and applicability approaches were not reported transparently nor in sufficient detail to judge their credibility. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for improvement in conceptual clarity about the definition of health equity, describing sufficient detail about analytic approaches (including subgroup analyses) and transparent reporting of judgments required for applicability assessments in order to assess and report effects on health equity in systematic reviews

Smylie, Mark A., Teacher Participation in School Decision Making: Assessing Willingness to Participate, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 14(Spring, 1992), 53-67.

Analyzes empirical data on teachers\u27 willingness to participate in decision making; principal-teacher relationship has the greatest influence

Continuous school improvement/ Smylie

xiv, 174 hal.; 25 cm

Continuous school improvement/ Smylie

xiv, 174 hal.; 25 cm

Succumbing to the Laws of Attraction: Exploring the Sometimes Pathogenic Versatility of Discrete Immune Logic

Feedback mechanisms throughout the immune and endocrine systems play a significant role in maintaining physiological homeostasis. Specifically, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axes contribute important oversight of immune activity and homeostatic regulation. We propose that these components form an overarching regulatory system capable of supporting multiple homeostatic regimes. These emerge as a result of the extensive feedback mechanisms involving cytokine and hormone signaling. Here we explore the possible role of such alternate regulatory programs in perpetuating chronic immune and endocrine dysfunction in males. To do this we represent documented interactions within and between components of the male HPA-HPG-immune system as a set of discrete logic circuits. Analysis of these regulatory circuits indicated that even in the absence of external perturbations this model HPA-HPG-immune network supported three distinct and stable homeostatic regimes. To investigate the relevance of these predicted homeostatic regimes, we compared them to experimental data from male subjects with Gulf War illness (GWI) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), two complex chronic conditions presenting with endocrine and immune dysregulation. Results indicated that molecular profiles observed experimentally in male GWI and CFS were both distinct from the normal resting state. Profile alignments suggests that regulatory circuitry is largely intact in male GWI and that the persistent immune dysfunction in this illness may at least in part be facilitated by the body’s own homeostatic drive. Conversely the profile for male CFS was distant from all three stable states suggesting the continued influence of an exogenous agent or lasting changes to the regulatory circuitry such as epigenetic alterations

Getting Down to Detail: Exploring the Sometimes Pathogenic Versatility of Discrete Immune Logic

Objective: Feedback mechanisms in the immune and endocrine systems play a significant role in maintaining stable homeostatic states. Specifically, the hypo-thalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), and hypo-thalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axes contribute important regulation of immune activity. We propose that these components form an over-arching regulatory system capable of supporting multiple stable regimes. Here we explore the role of these interactions in perpetuating chronic endocrine-immune dysfunction in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and Gulf War Illness (GWI). Methods: We represent documented interactions within and between components of the HPA-HPG-immune system as a set of logic circuits. Logical analysis of these regulatory circuits reveals the allowed stable homeostatic states of the overall system. Using standard t-tests clinical endocrine/immune profiles of male GWI and CFS subjects, obtained from an ongoing study, are compared against controls. A metaanalysis technique is then used to combine the resulting significance measures into the probability of alignment with model predicted states. Results: In the absence of external perturbations the HPAHPG-immune model supports three stable homeostatic states. Endocrine-immune profiles observed experimentally in GWI and CFS males were both distinct from the normal resting state. Male GWI aligned closely with a state corresponding to persistent hypercortisolism, decreased testosterone, and inflammation. While male CFS was also closest to this state, it was relatively distant from all three predicted states. Conclusion: Our results suggest that endocrine-immune regulatory circuitry is largely intact in male GWI and that the persistent immune dysfunction in this illness may at least in part be facilitated by the body’s own homeostatic drive. For male CFS, results suggest a continued influence of an exogenous agent or lasting changes to the regulatory circuitry