Reforming Teacher and Leader Preparation to Improve Instruction and Schooling for Students With Disabilities: The CEEDAR Way

Effective preparation systems are critical for preparing teachers and school leaders who have the knowledge and skills to educate students with disabilities to achieve college and career ready standards. These systems must provide teachers and leaders with effective practice-based opportunities to learn about evidence-based and high-leverage practices in their initial preparation and throughout their careers. Creating such systems, however, depends on comprehensive systems change where aligned research-based policy and preparation/induction practices are implemented in higher education and k-12 schools. This article describes the ingredients of effective systems change, and how the CEEDAR Center TA approach is informed by implementation drivers, as articulated by the National Implementation Research Network. The outcomes achieved by the Center thus far are also articulated as are challenges encountered.

Countering the Furor Around Critical Race Theory

National right-wing media and their viewers are alleging that critical race theory (CRT) is “infecting” public school classrooms, fueling an assault on how schools should discuss race, racism, and our nation's history. This turmoil over curriculum and teaching “sensitive” topics is deeply upsetting to teachers. Principals can strengthen their school's climate, shared leadership, and improve instruction and academic success for all students by helping their teachers manage and respond appropriately to parental and community questions about CRT.

Correlating instructional leadership practices of school administrators with teachers competencies

The study correlated the instructional leadership practices of school administrators with teachers’ competencies. Using a sample size of 208 teachers and 22 school administrators chosen as respondents with a descriptive-correlational research design, the study has able to find out that the demographic profile of the respondents were females, with MA units, in the position of teacher II, and were widowed. On the average, the number of years in service, current school and position of the teachers was 5 years and above. It further revealed that the respondents’ evaluation of the instructional leadership practices of School administrators showed an agreed response. It showed that on planning to modify and improve instruction on curriculum improvement was the highest to follow changes like the k to 12 and be able to globally compete to the outside countries. It also showed that the performance teachers perceived impact through instructional leadership practices of their administrators which showed an agreed response. The teacher’s competence on learning environment was the highest to be able to know the dedication of the teachers to teach and make students learned from them. It showed that there is no significant relationship between instructional leadership practices of School Administrators and Teachers’ Performance.

Investigating Indonesian EFL learners’ knowledge and use of English causative constructions

This paper explored Indonesian EFL learners’ explicit knowledge, processing, and use of English periphrastic causative constructions make, have, and get. 20 English L1 speakers and 20 Indonesian intermediate level EFL learners majoring in English Language Education at an Indonesian university took part in this study. Data were collected through a cloze task, a sentence completion task, an interpretation task, and a set of open-ended questions asking learners to provide descriptions about their knowledge of the constructions. Results showed that learners did not always use the first noun strategy to identify the agent in a passive causative construction. Also, their suppliances of the causative verbs in most items did not significantly differ from L1 speakers. However, the syntactic patterns were mostly non-target-like. They demonstrated insufficient explicit knowledge that could enable them to verbalize the formal and functional aspects underlying the constructions. Pedagogical implications along with suggestions to improve instruction are discussed.

English Language Standards in California, China and Mexico: History, Comparison, and Analysis

Learning standards have become a prominent feature for schools and school systems worldwide. Our paper describes the development of recent English teaching standards in California, China, and Mexico, as well as analyzing them for their theoretical orientations. We begin with an overview and critique of the standards movement. Our analysis of the standards in California, China, and Mexico reveals a substantial shift from a grammatical accuracy focused approach towards a communicative approach to language instruction. While this turn may be welcomed by professional educators, there are practical policy questions to be answered. We end our paper by noting additional challenges to implementing the new standards. Our general assessment is that the authors of the standards firmly believe that the new guidelines will improve instruction.

The Verbal Component of Mathematical Problem Solving in Bilingual Contexts by Early Elementary Schoolers

The main aim of the present study is to analyze the differences that may exist when students address the resolution of verbal problems in their mother tongue and in the language of instruction when these are different. We understand that knowing the type of verbal problems and their semantic structure can be helpful for students’ contextual and mathematical understanding and will allow teachers to improve instruction during the first years of elementary education in bilingual schools specialized in the area of second language acquisition as well as in CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning). This study shows how children, as they are acquiring a greater command of the second language, show similar effectiveness to those students who work on mathematics in their mother tongue. This transversal study was conducted on 169 bilinguals studying in international schools. The sample was made up of 80 1st grade students (39 girls, mean age of 7.1 years and 41 boys, mean age of 7.3 years); and 89 2nd grade students (38 girls, mean age 8.2 years, and 51 boys, mean age 8.2 years). The exploratory analyses let us show how 1st grade students demonstrate lower effectiveness in solving problems when they do it in a second language, compared to 2nd grade students whose effectiveness is higher in carrying them out. It is also relevant that in first graders, the largest number of errors are found in the simplest tasks as students’ effectiveness is less when they are taught in a second language, since it takes them longer to create effective resolution models. This fact will allow us to reconsider appropriate strategies and interventions when teaching mathematics in bilingual contexts.

Sustaining a Teacher Professional Learning Community in China Through Technology

This study explores the evolution of a professional learning community (PLC) of Chinese teachers over a multi-year period. A group of 16 teachers participated in a three-semester PLC over the 2008-2009 school years to develop master mathematics teachers in a school district in Beijing, China. The goal of the PLC, as identified by the teachers, was to improve instruction for greater student autonomy, creativity, and problem solving as they developed their master capacity building skills and networked relationships. This paper explores what has happened to these 16 teachers six years later, specifically considering how they may have used technology to further their development as master teachers. This study shows the potential of a PLC for self-adaptive, emergent behaviors and understandings that are instructional for transforming teaching practices, sustaining changes in teaching practices and preparing students for 21st century engagements.

Instructional Leadership

While principals are ultimately accountable for instructional leadership, they also are burdened by the increasing demands of the administrative job and, therefore, must rely on the capable teaching professionals to help carry out the instructional mission of the school. Indicators of instructional leadership for teacher leaders include coaching and mentoring, collaboration, and understanding the context of school and community. This chapter addresses the constructs of instructional leadership, including 1) understanding effective instructional practices, 2) alignment of school-wide instructional systems, 3) use of data to improve instruction, 4) the fostering of collective continuous improvement, and 5) inclusion of collaborative professional development for school personnel to build professional capacity and leadership in all. The intersection between principal and teacher leader roles, as a premise for distributive leadership, will be explored and proposed with recommendations for future research.