Teacher education has long relied on locally-developed assessments that lack reliability and validity. Rigorous performance-based assessments for preservice teachers have been advanced as one possible way to ensure that all students receive instruction from a high-quality teacher. Recently, performance-basedassessments have been developed which focus on the application of knowledge of teaching and learning in a classroom setting. Our book explores factors related to the implementation of teacher performance assessments in varying state and institutional contexts. The contributors, teacher educators from across the country, focus on what was learned from inquiries conducted using diverse methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, self-studies, and mixed methods). Their research encompassed faculty, supervisors, cooperating teachers, and students' perceptions and concerns of teacher performance assessments, case studies of curricular reform and/or resistance, analyses of experiences and needs as a result of the adoption of such assessments, and examinations of the results of program alignment and reform. The chapters showcase experiences which occurred during high-stakes situations, in implementation periods prior to high-stakes adoption, and in contexts where programs adopted performance assessments as an institutional policy rather than as a result of a state-wide mandate.

A volume in Readings in Educational Thought Series Editors Andrew J. Milson, Chara Haeussler Bohan, Perry L. Glanzer and J. Wesley Null Clinical Teacher Education focuses on how to build a school-university partnership network for clinical teacher education in urban school systems serving culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The labor intensive nature of professional development school work has resulted in research institutions being slow to fully adopt a clinical teacher education Professional Development School (PDS) network approach across the entirety of their teacher preparation programs. Faculty have often been hesitant to commit to such models in light of the demands of institutional expectations of publish or perish. In this book, faculty, researchers, and administrators from academia and from public schools involved in a clinical teacher education PDS network discuss their commitment to collaborative clinical teacher preparation and development, and to inquiry in PDS initiatives in urban schools. Clinical Teacher Education serves as an in-depth analysis of the strengths and challenges of establishing school-university networks in metropolitan environments. Many experienced and noteworthy authors contributed to Clinical Teacher Education. The authors hold various administrative and faculty positions in both university and public school settings. In addition to editors Chara Bohan and Joyce Many, chapter authors include, Mary Ariail, Gwen Benson, Lin Black, Donna Breault, William Curlette, Kezia McNeal Curry, Julie Dangel, Mary Deming, Caitline Dooley, Joe Feinberg, Teresa Fisher, Lou Matthews, August Ogletree, Susan Ogletree, Laura Smith, Susan Swars, Dee Taylor and Brian Williams. In addition, the chapters address a host of issues that arise when working in a large, urban school-university clinical teacher education network. Nine chapters include the following topics: Chapter 1, "Understanding the Complexities Inherent in Large Scale Implementation of the PDS Model by an Urban Research Institution," Chapter 2, "Professional Development Schools: History, Development, and Content Research," Chapter 3, "The Work and Insights of Professional Development School Boundary Spanners," Chapter 4, "Possibilities for Clinical Teacher Education: Four Stories of Field-based Courses Taught at Professional Development School Sites," Chapter 5, "Examining PDS Partnerships with Survey Items: Assessing Perception of Fidelity of Implementation Using the NCATE PDS Standards, " Chapter 6, "Integrating Inquiry in Clinical Teacher Education Initiatives Across a PDS Network," Chapter 7, "An Approach to Increasing Student Achievement: Teacher-Intern-Professor Groups with Anchor Action Research," Chapter 8, "Making a Difference in Teacher Development and High Quality Teaching," and Chapter 9, "Partnership Building in a Context of Change."

This volume offers a unique glimpse into the teaching approaches and thinking of a wide range of well-known literacy researchers, and the lessons they have learned from their own teaching lives. The contributors teach in a variety of universities, programs, and settings. Each shares an approach he or she has used in a course, and introduces the syllabus for this course through personal reflections that give the reader a sense of the theories, prior experiences, and influential authors that have shaped their own thoughts and approaches. In addition to describing the nature of their students and the program in which the course is taught, many authors also share key issues with which they have grappled over the years while teaching their course; others discuss considerations that were relevant during the preparation of this particular syllabus or describe how it evolved in light of student input. The book is organized by areas within literacy education: reading; English/language arts; literature; emergent literacy; content-area literacy; literacy assessment and instruction; literacy and technology; and inquiries into literacy, theory, and classroom practice. It is accompanied by an interactive Web site: http://msit.gsu.edu/handbook. This online resource provides additional information about the authors' courses including complete syllabi, recommended readings, grading rubrics, and sample assignments. Readers are invited to respond and contribute their own syllabi and teaching experiences to the discourse generated by the volume.

This volume offers a unique glimpse into the teaching approaches and thinking of a wide range of well-known literacy researchers, and the lessons they have learned from their own teaching lives. The contributors teach in a variety of universities, programs, and settings. Each shares an approach he or she has used in a course, and introduces the syllabus for this course through personal reflections that give the reader a sense of the theories, prior experiences, and influential authors that have shaped their own thoughts and approaches. In addition to describing the nature of their students and the program in which the course is taught, many authors also share key issues with which they have grappled over the years while teaching their course; others discuss considerations that were relevant during the preparation of this particular syllabus or describe how it evolved in light of student input.
The book is organized by areas within literacy education: reading; English/language arts; literature; emergent literacy; content-area literacy; literacy assessment and instruction; literacy and technology; and inquiries into literacy, theory, and classroom practice. It is accompanied by an interactive Web site: http: //msit.gsu.edu/handbook. This online resource provides additional information about the authors' courses including complete syllabi, recommended readings, grading rubrics, and sample assignments. Readers are invited to respond and contribute their own syllabi and teaching experiences to the discourse generated by the volume.

Teacher education has long relied on locally-developed assessments that lack reliability and validity. Rigorous performance-based assessments for preservice teachers have been advanced as one possible way to ensure that all students receive instruction from a high-quality teacher. Recently, performance-basedassessments have been developed which focus on the application of knowledge of teaching and learning in a classroom setting. Our book explores factors related to the implementation of teacher performance assessments in varying state and institutional contexts. The contributors, teacher educators from across the country, focus on what was learned from inquiries conducted using diverse methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, self-studies, and mixed methods). Their research encompassed faculty, supervisors, cooperating teachers, and students' perceptions and concerns of teacher performance assessments, case studies of curricular reform and/or resistance, analyses of experiences and needs as a result of the adoption of such assessments, and examinations of the results of program alignment and reform. The chapters showcase experiences which occurred during high-stakes situations, in implementation periods prior to high-stakes adoption, and in contexts where programs adopted performance assessments as an institutional policy rather than as a result of a state-wide mandate.

A volume in Readings in Educational Thought Series Editors Andrew J. Milson, Chara Haeussler Bohan, Perry L. Glanzer and J. Wesley Null Clinical Teacher Education focuses on how to build a school-university partnership network for clinical teacher education in urban school systems serving culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The labor intensive nature of professional development school work has resulted in research institutions being slow to fully adopt a clinical teacher education Professional Development School (PDS) network approach across the entirety of their teacher preparation programs. Faculty have often been hesitant to commit to such models in light of the demands of institutional expectations of publish or perish. In this book, faculty, researchers, and administrators from academia and from public schools involved in a clinical teacher education PDS network discuss their commitment to collaborative clinical teacher preparation and development, and to inquiry in PDS initiatives in urban schools. Clinical Teacher Education serves as an in-depth analysis of the strengths and challenges of establishing school-university networks in metropolitan environments. Many experienced and noteworthy authors contributed to Clinical Teacher Education. The authors hold various administrative and faculty positions in both university and public school settings. In addition to editors Chara Bohan and Joyce Many, chapter authors include, Mary Ariail, Gwen Benson, Lin Black, Donna Breault, William Curlette, Kezia McNeal Curry, Julie Dangel, Mary Deming, Caitline Dooley, Joe Feinberg, Teresa Fisher, Lou Matthews, August Ogletree, Susan Ogletree, Laura Smith, Susan Swars, Dee Taylor and Brian Williams. In addition, the chapters address a host of issues that arise when working in a large, urban school-university clinical teacher education network. Nine chapters include the following topics: Chapter 1, "Understanding the Complexities Inherent in Large Scale Implementation of the PDS Model by an Urban Research Institution," Chapter 2, "Professional Development Schools: History, Development, and Content Research," Chapter 3, "The Work and Insights of Professional Development School Boundary Spanners," Chapter 4, "Possibilities for Clinical Teacher Education: Four Stories of Field-based Courses Taught at Professional Development School Sites," Chapter 5, "Examining PDS Partnerships with Survey Items: Assessing Perception of Fidelity of Implementation Using the NCATE PDS Standards, " Chapter 6, "Integrating Inquiry in Clinical Teacher Education Initiatives Across a PDS Network," Chapter 7, "An Approach to Increasing Student Achievement: Teacher-Intern-Professor Groups with Anchor Action Research," Chapter 8, "Making a Difference in Teacher Development and High Quality Teaching," and Chapter 9, "Partnership Building in a Context of Change."