Tag Archive for 'professional development'

Improving instruction…how?

Published
by
JohnL
on 13 October 2008
in News, Reading, Teacher education and The press
. 2 Comments

From the northern California news source Redding.com, I learned that a local school will use grant funds to help special educators improve their reading and language arts teaching. I’m curious about how the school plans to do this. Any guesses?

State grant helps Lewiston school

LEWISTON - Lewiston Elementary School has been awarded a $19,500 grant from the state.

The Professional Development in Reading for Special Education Teachers Pilot Program grants are designed to provide support to special education teachers to help them improve reading and language-art instruction.

About 10 percent of California students are designated as needing special education services. In all, $26.6 million was given to 27 school districts across the state.

Link for the article.

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DLD fall conference

Published
by
JohnL
on 14 August 2008
in Administration, Arithmetic and mathematics, Content learning, News, Reading, Research, Teacher education, The press and Written Expression
. 0 Comments

The Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) of the Council for Exceptional Children holds a conference annually in late October or early November. This year it is in Philadelphia (PA, US) and it features a batch of presentations that promise to be helpful to teachers, coaches, and administrators interested in learning how to implement evidence-based instructional practices.

Check the agenda for the next Fall Conference 24 and 25 October 2008 and then register! Learn about DLD’s “Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice” and learn how you can participate in this outstanding professional development opportunity.

Please note that I am connected with DLD (long-time member, former president, currently executive director and co-editor of the Web site), but I’d be pushing this conference even if I wasn’t affiliated with it.

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Bogus Bowl V: Professors’ rationales

Published
by
JohnL
on 29 July 2008
in Policy, Research and Teacher education
. 0 Comments

Professors of education are, arguably, among the most powerful arbiters of the views of education of the US teaching corps; their influence on beginning teachers is eclipsed only by the teaching corps itself, if by any other force, and their influence on prospective teachers must be unparalleled. Because few practicing teachers contribute to the professional literature and many professors do publish, their effect on the canon (such as and whatever it is) is overwhelming. So, it’s about time for a Bogus Bowl examining professors’ views on evidence-based education.

In Bogus Bowl V, I ask you to choose among several different reasons that professors might give for failing to teach their students, our schools’ prospective teachers, those teaching practices that have been documented as having the greatest effects on pre-kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade students’ outcomes in important academic and social areas.

Which of the following do you consider to be the most bogus reason for professors failing to teach prospective teachers how to employ teaching procedures that have been documented to be effective?

View Results

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As usual, I want to advise readers that these are not scientific polls. Please do not interpret the results of this or other similar polls on Teach Effectively as representative of the views of people, educators, or even visitors to TE. The results of these polls only represent the views of those who entered a vote under the constrained conditions of the questions, alternative answers, response requirements, and etc. of this poll.

Thanks to Liz Ditz and Ken De Rosa for consulting with me about the poll during its gestation period.

For those who would like to read an academic paper related to this topic, please see Doug Carnine’s “Why Education Experts Resist Effective Practices (And What It Would Take to Make Education More Like Medicine).” Here’s a link to an HTML version of the paper where one can also download a PDF of it.

Oh, yes, years ago I could hardly spell ‘professser,’ but now I are one.

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Reading First national conference

Published
by
JohnL
on 28 July 2008
in Administration, News, Policy, Reading, Research and The press
. 0 Comments

Despite the distressing recent news about funding for the US Reading First program, the annual conference is in full swing and there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for the program here at the site in Nashville (TN, US). As I understand, there are >5000 educators from all around the US who have registered for the conference (there’s a map with pins for sites that I plan to photograph and publish here), and the teachers and administrators (coaches, principals, reading specialists) with whom I’ve spoken seem committed to making sure they know what to do to ensure that students learn to read.

Registration for the conference is free, and that price of admission permits one to attend sessions delivered by people such as Anita Archer, Frances Bessellieu, Nell Duke, Stu Greenberg, Annemieke Golly, Jan Hasbrouck, Roxanne Hudson, Mike McKenna, Maddie McKeown, Stan Paine, Tin Shanahan, Sharon Walpole, dozens of others. Who wouldn’t be willing to give up a few days of summer vacation to attend this conference?

Mrs. Laura Bush is slated to speak in a few minutes, so the local TV stations are here in force. There are several vans with antennae parked right outside my hotel room.

Obligatory reminder: I’m a member of the Reading First Advisory Committee, but my statements here are my own. They do not reflect the views of the committee or of other members of the committee.

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ABA education conference

Published
by
JohnL
on 16 June 2008
in Administration, Behavior Management, News, Policy, Research, Social behavior and Teacher education
. 0 Comments

The Association for Behavior Analysis International opened on-line registration for the 2008 Education Conference “Evidence-Based Practice, Scientifically Based Instruction, and Educational Effectiveness.” The conference, which will be held 5-7 September 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Reston in Reston (VA, US) near Washington D.C., features lots of potentially valuable presentations.

* Anthony Biglan: Teacher Stress and Collegiality: Overlooked Factors in the Effort to Promote Evidence-Based Practices
* Ronnie Detrich: Evidence-Based Education: Can We Get There from Here?
* Robert H. Horner: Implementing Evidence-Based Practices at Socially Important Scales
* Lynn Okagaki: Solution Driven Research
* Timothy Slocum: Sources of Evidence-Based Education Recommendations
* W. David Tilly III: Nailing the Educational Pendulum to the Wall
* Hill M. Walker: Critical Issues in the Use of Randomized Clinical Trials and Control Groups Within Applied Settings: Rationale, Challenges and Benefits
* Susan M. Wilczynski: The Role of Single Subject Research Design in Establishing Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines
* Amanda VanDerHeyden: Using RTI to Accomplish System Change

Here are relevant links to the program, registration, and hotel reservations.

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