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Over the past decade the policy debate over improving U.S. public education has focused on market solutions (charter schools, privatization, and vouchers) and teacher evaluation through high stakes standardized testing of students. In this debate, teachers and their unions are often characterized as the problem. Our research offers an alternate path in the debate, a perspective that looks at schools as systems – the way schools are organized and the way decisions are made. We focus on examples of collaboration through the creation of long-term labor-management partnerships among teachers’ unions and school administrators that improve and restructure public schools from the inside to enhance planning, decision-making, problem solving, and the ways teachers interact and schools are organized. We analyzed how these efforts were created and sustained in six public school districts over the past two decades, and what they can teach us about the impact of significant involvement of faculty and their local union leadership, working closely with district administration. We argue that collaboration between teachers, their unions, and administrators is both possible and necessary for any meaningful and lasting public school reform.

More than ever before, researchers and policymakers expect general education classroom to be the first line of defense in efforts to prevent reading difficulties. Preventing reading difficulties through evidence-based beginning reading instruction research features prominently in the 2002 No Child Left Behind legislation (NCLB; P. L. 107-110) and in the 2004 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). The purpose of this chapter is to describe the experimental and quasi-experimental methodological approaches that have been used to examine the effects of professional development in reading on teachers’ instructional practices and students’ reading outcomes and to evaluate the chain of causal linkage in the more recent studies. The first section of the chapter provides a brief history of relevant research. The second section summarizes findings of the National Reading Panel (NRP, 2000) Report and those of a recent review of the literature (Clancy-Menchetti & Al Otaiba, 2006). The final section synthesizes what we have learned from the research.

Research in general education has demonstrated that school principals have a substantial impact on the effectiveness of schools and related student achievement. This is not a direct impact, but rather relates to how principals indirectly impact student learning by improving the learning environment of a school and the practice of teachers. More specifically, the dimensions of principal practice that are most influential in improving schools and student achievement relate to establishing a shared vision, facilitating a high-quality learning environment for students, building the professional capacity of teachers, creating a supportive organization for learning, and connecting with external partners. Only in recent years has research begun to emerge related to the role of the principal in supporting improved achievement for students with disabilities in schools that are effective and inclusive. In this chapter, we review research related to what principals can do to facilitate the development of inclusive schools that are also effective in improving achievement for students with disabilities and other students who struggle to learn. After reviewing these dimensions of principal practice, we then provide a brief case study that illustrates how a principal in an effective inclusive school applied several of these practices, including staff collaboration, progress monitoring, and professional development to improve teacher practice and student outcomes.

This chapter reviews some of the important factors in the professional development of teachers of young children. It discusses how important teacher quality is for student outcomes. The chapter also discusses the many factors that go into the development of quality teachers. This chapter also introduces the history of the Early Childhood Educator Professional Development program financed through grants from the United States Department of Education. This program has focused on creating state of the art professional development programs across many U.S. contexts.

Often overlooked in discussions related to how to ensure accessible and affordable high-quality early childhood education is the heavy burden that has been carried by the early childhood workforce; the data reveal a level of exploitation of this workforce that must be considered and addressed. This chapter will focus attention on the economic realities of the early childhood workforce as a key element to achieve equitable access to affordable high-quality early childhood services.

Toward the construction of a new paradigm in teacher education in a globalized and digitalized society where it is intended to value knowledge and teacher professional development sustained by collaboration and cooperation, training policies and models based on technology-enhanced active learning will be required. This chapter aims to analyze the dimensions that can affect these training models within a new educational paradigm, at the level of professional development and increase of technological skills, collaborative processes for the creation of communities of practice, and promotion of active learning that contribute to innovative hybrid environments and transformative learning. In the Covid-19 post-pandemic, it is crucial to study and mobilize the experiences developed in the educational field exploring how these can be harnessed to build this new educational paradigm. This work aims to contribute with a reasoned reflection and insights concerning learning models and methodologies in teacher education that contribute to transformative active learning. Focusing on the link between preservice and in-service teacher education, the interrelation among teacher education and evaluation, and the construction of innovative technology-enhanced learning environments, for instance through the active training model.

This chapter consists of two reflective accounts from Slovenia. Both accounts are connected with Barica Marentič Požarnik, who in Part I of this 30th anniversary volume directly linked her personal professional development to the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT) during its emergent years as an organisation. In this chapter in the fifth and closing section, Marentič Požarnik’s counterparts follow in the footsteps that their senior colleague and mentor planted and make tracks of their own. They crystallise how ISATT has affected their professional development and influenced their lines of research as they - and ISATT - press towards the future.

Teacher unions’ departures from industrial organizing are documented in a series of case studies and collections on reform-minded locals’ practices and contracts (see Johnson & Kardos, 2001; Kerchner & Koppich, 1993). Recently, investigators have collected data on union locals that belong to the Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN), a group of NEA and AFT locals. For example, William Harju (2003), retired executive director of the San Diego Teachers Association, visited most of the TURN locals (working from a document collection schedule and case study format similar to the one in Kerchner & Koppich, 1993). Kerchner and Koppich, in recent unpublished work, visited Minneapolis, Columbus, and Rochester and made additional inquiries by telephone interview.¹ TURN locals by no means represent the totality of union reform, and no encyclopedia of union reforms in the United States exists, but TURN locals are certainly among those with the longest experience and most extensive reforms.

High quality professional development and preservice teacher training should incorporate elements to help practitioners to integrate theory, research, and practice. Ideally, lessons and activities in early childhood classrooms would look like a kaleidoscope of dynamic approaches, infusing what is known about teaching into the context of that particular classroom with a diverse group of learners at that moment in time. It cannot be a “one size fits all” package. In the present chapter, vignettes from two schools in different parts of the world (South Africa and the United States) illustrate how digital media (photographs and video) provide powerful tools for bridging principles learned in professional development with ongoing classroom practice. The authors show how the use of digital tools helped teachers to: (1) see the consequences of their teaching decisions; (2) understand and value children's cultures; (3) meet the needs of all students (special needs or gifted) in their classroom; (4) increase family involvement; and (5) demonstrate their accountability. Using video and photographs provides a lens for ongoing reflection and observation of children in action. Digital tools allow teachers to discover their classroom from a different angle, see what children learned, or experience something the teacher missed while engaged in action. Digital tools create dialogue among teachers from diverse settings and provide new ways for everyone to view classroom experiences. They offer opportunities for brainstorming and for gaining different perspectives. Thus, digital tools enhance reflective practice. The authors realized everyone could be changed from the experience, including those who provided the professional development.