"There is a vitally important link between teacher preparation and the performance of those teachers and their students. Assessing Teacher Competency and Assessing Teacher Dispositions provide a strong underpinning to improve teacher competencies in both the cognitive and affective domains in ways that we can hope will endure post-licensure." -From the Foreword by Richard C. Kunkel "Well researched and standards based, with activities, worksheets, definitions, and rubrics. Addresses a topic that has been a mystery to assessment gurus." -Marilyn K. Troupe, Director Division of Educator Preparation, Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board At last, a step-by-step guide for assessing teacher dispositions that addresses national accreditation standards. While school leaders have long sought a definitive tool for assessing teacher affect and dispositions, a practical method for measurement has proven elusive-until now. Assessing Teacher Dispositions presents a conceptual framework that helps educators understand what "appropriate dispositions" are, why it is important to measure them, and how to implement an assessment process in their schools and districts. This indispensable companion to Assessing Teacher Competency introduces the authors' research-based five-step DAATS model, combining user-friendly definitions and guiding questions with an examination of assessment design, planning, instrument development, decision making, and data management. Linked to national standards for best practice set by NCATE, INTASC, and NBPTS, the DAATS approach offers: A step-by-step implementation sequence with worksheets and training activities Examples from preservice and inservice settings A comprehensive assessment system when used with the CAATS model for assessing teacher competency (knowledge and skills) This groundbreaking text offers a field-tested, valid, and reliable process for dispositions assessment that is ideal for schools of education, teacher induction programs, and preservice and inservice training.

`This is a good and needed book. I would buy it, and recommend it to a wide range of educators.' -Kenneth D. Peterson, Professor, Portland State University `The authors have amassed a tremendous amount of information and assembled it into a very readable book that is an excellent resource.' -Randel Beaver, Superintendent, Archer City School District, TX Attract and retain the highest-quality teachers through competitive compensation programs! While many working in the teaching profession cite intangible rewards as reasons for staying in the profession, concrete rewards such as salary, benefits, and working conditions are inextricably linked to recruiting, motivating, and retaining highly-qualified teachers. This timely text examines the fundamental link between teacher pay and teacher quality as well as the extent to which it is aligned with student achievement. Existing compensation models are reviewed in order to provide a practical, research-based approach for developing a comprehensive, best-practice teacher compensation system. School administrators can use these synthesized, innovative findings to: Determine the most practical compensation model for achieving their school's objectives Examine different pay options used across the country Connect their school's compensation program to organizational goals Discover how to attract and retain high-quality teachers

"A fine blend of analysis and highly practical advice. Useful for anyone interested in the professional development of teachers as a collaborative learning process."
Stephen Brookfield, Professor
University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota

Encourage your teachers to form study groups to enrich their professional development programs.

This book shows how "Learning Circles"?small groups of learners who come together to support each other in learning?can make great improvements in the quality of teaching and learning in your school.

Based on six key conditions, teachers form Learning Circles by learning how to:

Help your teachers see how reflective practice can boost their effectiveness! They can make significant, positive differences in your school by improving how people relate to each other and sharing a vision for change.

The concept of 'authentic assessment' is making an increasing impression in numerous classrooms in North America. Current testing programs are being scrutinized to determine how to move beyond traditional forms of assessment to enhance student learning, understanding, and application of knowledge. The authors of this detailed yet clearly written book provide essential information on how to develop and implement 'authentic assessment' programs, including the involvement in the learning process of not only teachers, students and administrators but also parents and community members.

Action Research in the Classroom: Helping Teachers Assess and Improve their Work guides teacher-researchers through the process of using action research in their practice to improve students' learning and teachers' teaching. The book uses actual classroom examples to assist aspiring, new, and veteran teachers and those who support them (administrators, department chairpersons, and mentors) in using a six-step process L.E.A.D.E.R. to successfully accomplish and share research conducted by actual classroom teachers. Each step in the L.E.A.D.E.R. process -- (1) L=Look at the Problem, (2) E=Examine what we know; (3) A=Acquire knowledge of school problem-solving; (4) D=Devise a plan for improvement; (5) E=Execute the plan; and, (6) R=Repeat steps and processes as needed -- can guide teachers, administrators, and even parents - and students - in solving their own problems and improving their learning and teaching.

While the Common Core couldn't be clearer about what to teach, they never quite tackle how to teach. That's what makes Inquiring into the Common Core such an essential resource. It offers teachers an inquiry-based professional development model for achieving greater understanding of the standards themselves, then determining best ways to realize desired outcomes. How exactly does the model work? Teachers take charge of their own professional development by posing questions, or wonderings, to stimulate action and higher-level insight into the big ambitions of the Common Core. At the very same time, they engage in a parallel process of inquiry with their students in service of the very same goals. Assisting teachers along the ways, Inquiring into the Common Core provides tools to systematically study teaching effectiveness while adapting to new standards classroom-ready, student inquiry techniques and strategies to apply within Common Core's framework real life inquiry-implementation examples from a high-need, high-poverty school Ideal for both teams or individual teachers, there's no better resource for laying the groundwork for successful and thought-provoking classroom actualization amid shifting times.

Most teachers try to avoid evaluation, but that's no longer an option in this age of accountability and school reform. However, evaluation doesn't need to be something that teachers fear. As the authors of this accessible resource guide so aptly show, evaluation can be done with a minimum of fuss and without an advanced degree in statistics and research methodology. This user-friendly guide includes easy-to-understand examples, checklists, sample exercises, discussion questions and step-by-step guidance for educational evaluation. It also contains a case study that follows one school and educational authority through the evaluation process, showing what evaluation looks like and feels like in schools and districts. The authors provide a comprehensive set of concepts and guidelines for conducting evaluation studies. The book is results-centered and focused on proven concepts and methods. The authors have developed a simple, four-step process to guide teachers through evaluation: alignment and direction; observations, results, and action and adjustment.