School Change and Improvement

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Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement (CSRI) Web Site (2008)
The Center's mission is to assist schools and districts engaged in comprehensive school reform and improvement by providing reliable information about research-based strategies and assistance. The Center provide support for the Comprehensive School Reform Program, and the Web site currently houses a variety of tools, guides, a literature database, and links relating to school improvement.

SEDL Letter, Volume XX, Number 1: Making the Most of Middle School (2008)
In this issue of SEDL Letter, SEDL tackles some of the issues middle school educators face. We discuss the lack of national policy addressing these years. We learn from a former middle school principal how families can help their middle school students. We look at the research that shows how our middle schoolers are falling behind in math compared to their peers in other nations—and what we can do about it. We debate whether we should revamp middle schools and go back to the K–8 system. Finally, we discuss how afterschool programs can attract and retain this hard-to-reach audience.

Tools for Transitions: Resources for Educators Helping Students Displaced by Hurricane Katrina (2005)
Students and their families who have been displaced by hurricane Katrina face a myriad of challenges, both personal and academic. In turn, the Texas schools now serving many of those students must find ways of helping student evacuees to succeed in an environment in which the curriculum may be as unfamiliar to them as the classroom and the faces in it. This set of training materials is intended to help address those challenges. It is designed for professional developers — regional Education Service Center staff, local curriculum supervisors, and others — who in turn will work with teachers whose classes include Katrina evacuees.

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SEDL i-Plan: Online School Improvement Planning Tool (2005)
SEDL i-Plan is a online school improvement planning tool customized for Galena Park ISD. The system allows campus contacts to log on and create a plan, including a campus profile, plan introduction, needs assessment, goals, appendix, and several report options. The system allows administrators to monitor plans in development, review and approve plans that are submitted, or comment on needed changes and open the plan for additional modifications.

Texas Focus: The Newsletter of the Texas Comprehensive Center (2007)
Meeting the goals of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is tough for everyone involved--schools, districts, and states. That's why the Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC) is producing Texas Focus, a quarterly newsletter. Each edition will focus on challenges that Texas educators face. In addition, the newsletter offers a review of the TXCC's recent events and activities as well as national news regarding NCLB. We hope you will find information here that stimulates your thinking and increases your knowledge about resources, practices, and programs that support the achievement of the goals and purposes of NCLB.

Assessing a School Staff as a Community of Professional Learners: Issues About Change, Volume 7, Number 1 (1999)
This paper discusses how to use an instrument to assess how well a school staff functions as a team and works collegially so that students might become more successful learners.

Corrective Action in Low-Performing Schools and School Districts (2001)
This publication summarizes formal state plans to improve low-performing schools.

Price: $9

Correlates of Successful Implementation and School Change: An Annotated Bibliography (2000)
This bibliography contains valuable references pertaining to the topics of change and implementation in schools, as used in the development of a survey instrument by SEDL's "Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration" project.

Price: $66

Improving Classroom Assessment: A Toolkit for Professional Staff Developers, Toolkit 98 (1998)
This two-volume resource for trainers contains findings and approaches to blending assessment with instruction to improve student learning.

Price: $15

Making Assessment Work for Everyone: How to Build on Student Strengths (2000)
This publication provides teachers with research information and practical ideas for modifying assessments to make them more effective.

SEDL Letter, Volume XIX, Number 1: Developing a Staff of Learners (2007)
This issue of SEDL Letter examines various forms of on-the-job professional development as well as standards of effective professional development.

SEDL Letter, Volume XVIII, Number 2: A Culture of Data (2006)
Building a culture of quality data means administrators, teachers, and other staff members must have access to the data they need and must know how to analyze the data and use it to make instructional decisions. The current issue of SEDL Letter examines these issues. It looks at a recent research study about state data and discusses how school staffs can take the first steps in learning to analyze data effectively.

SEDL Letter, Volume XVIII, Number 3: 40 Years of SEDL's Building Knowledge to Support Learning (2006)
This issue of SEDL Letter celebrates SEDL's history and touches upon new work.

Total Quality: A Missing Piece for Educational Improvement: Issues About Change, Volume 3, Number 3 (1994)
This paper summarizes the Quality experiences of three educational organizations: an instructional services division, a school district, and a primary school. It also presents a lucid introduction to the Quality program while correlating its principles to school improvement strategies such as site-based decision-making.

Tough Love: State Accountability Policies Push Student Achievement (Insights on Education Policy, Practice, and Research, Number 11) (2000)
This paper reviews some of the assumptions, tensions, and lessons in the current accountability movement as well as the progress states in the region have made in implementing their accountability policies.

A Best-Fit Approach to Effective Teacher Policy: (Insights on Education Policy, Practice, and Research, Number 17) (2004)
In this issue of Insights, SEDL invited Jennifer King Rice, Ph.D. to share her best-fit decision making approach to improving teacher resources. This issue describes her model and provides guidance on its use.

Enhancing Data Use and Quality to Shape Education Policy: (Insights on Education Policy, Practice, and Research, Number 18) (2005)
In this issue of Insights, SEDL investigated state education data in four states to determine whether research can be conducted to find answers to education resource and student performance policy questions. This issue highlights study findings that policymakers will find informative in efforts to meet standards and data effectively.

Examination of Resource Allocation in Education: Connecting Spending to Student Performance (2003)
This research study investigated the relationship between resource allocation and student performance.

Investigation of Education Databases in Four States to Support Policy Research on Resource Allocation (2005)
In this report, SEDL researchers investigate data collected and managed by state education agencies to determine whether new research can be conducted to support policy questions about education resources and student performance.

Investing in Instruction for Higher Student Achievement: (Insights on Education Policy, Practice, and Research, Number 15) (2003)
Allocating resources is one of the toughest tasks a policymaker faces. To make the most of the education dollars in hand, state and local leaders want to concentrate spending where it will have the greatest impact on student achievement. Recent studies show that it is not that simple. For the first time, research is beginning to shed light on these critical gaps, and our study helps illuminate resource allocation issues in the Southwest.

Making Education Dollars Work: Understanding Resource Allocation (Insights on Education Policy, Practice, and Research, Number 14) (2001)
This policy brief introduces state policymakers to information about current practice and research on education resource allocation and heightens awareness of the issues and concerns regarding this topic.

Philanthropic Support for Public Education in the Southwest (2000)
This report examines the relationship between philanthropy and public schools in five states -- Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas -- that comprise the "Southwestern Region" served by Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) under its federal contract as a Regional Educational Laboratory.

Resource Allocation Practices and Student Achievement: An Examination of District Expenditures by Performance Level with Interviews from Twenty-One Districts (2000)
This report summarizes research on resource allocation and student performance conducted in school districts across Texas.

School Finance Adequacy: The State Role: (Insights on Education Policy, Practice, and Research, Number 16) (2004)
Perhaps the most visible school finance issue today is adequacy. Defined as the provision of adequate resources to enable all children to meet a state's proficiency standards, school finance adequacy is being addressed in some way in almost every state, especially since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has upped the ante with its Adequate Yearly Progress provisions. At the same time, most states and districts are facing reduced revenue growth and tighter budgets. State governments in particular feel this pinch because in recent years they have assumed increased fiscal responsibility for funding education. In this issue, we discuss how adequacy can be determined and the challenges it presents to policymakers.

SEDL Policy Forums (2001-2005) (2005)
From 2001-2005, SEDL invited a regional network of education policymakers and influencers to an annual policy forum. These policymakers come from state departments of education, legislative committees, and governor's offices in the five states in the region: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The participants exchanged information on topics of common interest, and also heard about the latest developments in research, policy, and practice from national experts on the topics featured.

SEDLetter, Volume X, Number 2: New Policies for Southwestern Schools (1997)
This issue of SEDLetter includes the articles: (1) From Statehouse to Schoolhouse, (2) Dialing Up Discounts, (3) The E-Rate in the South and Southwest, and (4) Resources for School Policy-Making.

Teacher Resources and Student Achievement in High-Need Schools (2006)
With the growing federal, state, and local policy emphasis on teacher quality and student achievement, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) investigated teacher resources and their relationship to student achievement in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. The purpose of this study was to provide policymakers with information about the relationship between teacher salary, experience, and education, and the relationship between these teacher resources and student achievement, particularly in high-need schools.

Board's Role in Educational Improvement, The: Issues About Change, Volume 3, Number 4 (1994)
This paper summarizes research on school boards' leadership for school change and improvement and relates the findings to Arkansas and Texas boards.

Changing Mental Frameworks: One High School's Success through a Triad Partnership: Issues About Change, Volume 3, Number 2 (1994)
This paper details how staff, students, and parents changed the culture of a Texas high school, raised expectations, and improved working relationships and student performance.

Co-Developers: Partners in a Study of Professional Learning Communities: Issues About Change, Volume 8, Number 2 (2000)
This publication reports one aspect of a national study focusing on the concept and development of Co-Developers in the Creating Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement (CCCII) project at Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL).

Comprehensive School Improvement: Addressing the Challenges: Issues About Change, Volume 9, Number 1 (2000)
This publication, coupled with current nationwide interest in encouraging schools to adopt comprehensive reform strategies or programs, urgently communicates the need for school improvement.

Confronting and Managing Culture in a Changing Environment: Issues About Change, Volume 5, Number 4 (1995)
This paper explains how a visionary superintendent restructured a junior high school into a middle school in a largely Hispanic New Mexico small town.

Creating a Context for Change: Issues About Change, Volume 2, Number 2 (1992)
This publication describes 17 indicators of a school context that supports change and provides advice from educators who have successfully implemented improvements.

Creating a Professional Learning Community: Cottonwood Creek School: Issues About Change, Volume 6, Number 2 (1998)
This paper discusses strategies and approaches hereby school staffs might develop into collegial organizations, illustrated by the real-life example of Cottonwood Creek high School.

CSRD Connections: Taking the Lead: The Role of the Principal in School Reform (2000)
This publication brings you articles and discussions about implementation of school reform programs that will help support you through your first year of reform efforts and beyond.

Facilitative Leadership: The Imperative for Change (1992)
This guide discusses successful leadership strategies that help promote change. It presents a brief history of approaches to school change, actions of successful school leaders and how they contributed significantly to successful change, and how school leaders address systemic change or restructuring.

GEARS: Creating an Approach to Support Education and Systemic Change (1993)
These publications are a series of policy supplements which focus on creating an approach to support education and systemic change.

Launching Professional Learning Communities: Beginning Actions: Issues About Change, Volume 8, Number 1 (2000)
This briefing paper identifies themes that describe actions taken at schools to develop professional learning communities.

Leadership Characteristics that Facilitate Change (1992)
This guide explores the personal qualities that contribute to a person's leadership practices and examines how personal qualities influence educational leadership. The main topics discussed are some key leadership concepts, characteristics found in effective educational, and implications of these characteristics when leaders implement or initiate school change.

Leadership: An Imperative for Successful Change: Issues About Change, Volume 1, Number 2 (1991)
This paper reviews the literature on leaders' strategies for school change, identifies five strategies, and describes how the strategies are applied at the district and local school levels.

Maryetta School: The Center of a Rural Community: Issues About Change, Volume 5, Number 1 (1995)
This paper six key leadership strategies that led to academic improvements and high parental involvement at an award-winning, rural Oklahoma school where 82 percent of the students are American Indians.

Multiple Mirrors: Reflections on the Creation of Professional Learning Communities (2000)
This publication is a collection of stories written by the co-developers who worked with SEDL in assisting schools to create professional learning communities in a sample of schools.

New Alliance of Superintendents and Principals: Applying the Research to Site-Based Decision-Making: Issues About Change, Volume 2, Number 1 (1992)
This review presents three roles that effective school superintendents play, and presents three strategies that effective superintendents use to improve teaching.

Principals and Teachers: Continuous Learners: Issues About Change, Volume 7, Number 2 (1999)
This paper discusses how three principals have increased staff capacity by developing professional development relationships with their staffs and encouraged their participation in the decision-making process.

Price: $15

Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement (1997)
This publication includes stories and reports of research on how school professional staff - teachers and principals - organize as a learning community.

Price: $12

Professional Learning Communities: An Ongoing Exploration (2000)
This book provides a review of the five dimensions along which a school staff should operate in order to become a learning community and discusses the role such a community can play in school reform.

Professional Learning Communities: What Are They and Why Are They Important?: Issues About Change, Volume 6, Number 1 (1997)
This lucid review of the research on professional learning communities defines five important attributes of professional learning communities and identifies the outcomes they deliver to staff and students.

Pulling Together: R&D Resources for Rural Schools (1994)
This portfolio for rural educators summarizes the changes taking place in rural America, what they mean for rural education, and the R&D role of the Regional Educational Laboratories.

Realizing School Improvement through Understanding the Change Process: Issues About Change, Volume 1, Number 1 (1990)
This paper focuses on two important questions that you need to answer when implementing successful school change: What exactly is the innovation? What happens to the educators who implement new programs and ideas in their schools and classrooms?

Schools as Learning Communities: Issues About Change, Volume 4, Number 1 (1994)
This publication describes how four principals transformed an urban elementary school in New Orleans into a learning community, with the help of parents, students, and faculty.

Site-Based Decision-Making: Its Potential for Enhancing Learned Outcomes: Issues About Change, Volume 1, Number 4 (1991)
This paper defines site-based decision-making, looks at new roles developed when site-based decision-making takes place, and explains how site-based decision-making is linked to learner outcomes.

Staff Development and Change Process: Cut from the Same Cloth: Issues About Change, Volume 4, Number 2 (1994)
This informative document spells out the firm relationship between effective staff development and successful change programs. It covers six success strategies that can help ensure your staff development program will serve as a potent motivator of school change initiatives.

Price: $6

Strategies for Success: Implementing a Comprehensive School Reform Program (2000)
This book discusses the six strategies of successful implementation of a comprehensive school program and provides tips from experts.

Superintendents of Small Districts and School Improvement: Planning, Providing Resources, and Professional Development: Issues About Change, Volume 3, Number 1
This paper details how the superintendents of rural and small school districts planned for and provided resources and staff development--and how they used these improvements to implement successful school change.

Vision, Leadership, and Change: Issues About Change, Volume 2, Number 3 (1993)
This paper focuses on vision, its definition, and how it is demonstrated in educators. It also provides a process for the collaborative development of a shared vision resulting in a vision statement.

Voices from the Field: Success in School Reform (2000)
These online audio recordings provide advice and best practices from experienced practitioners in the field of leadership and school change.

Year One and Year Two: What Do You Do in Comprehensive School Improvement?: Issues About Change, Volume 9, Number 2 (2000)
This briefing paper discusses the experiences of SEDL staff as they worked with partner schools during the first and second year of implementing a school improvement plan.

A Description of SEDL's Intensive Sites: Working Systemically to Create High-Performing Learning Communities (2002)
This paper provides a report of the field sites identified by SEDL for its school improvement work across the five-state region of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas during 2000-2005. SEDL developed a scope of work with these sites that responded to the U.S. Department of Education's request for proposals to "transform low-performing schools into high-performing learning communities." The first section of the paper is a brief commentary about the preparation that SEDL undertook for identifying the districts within the five states, and the criteria for the selection of sites. A second section gives a brief account of the experiences of SEDL in recruiting the sites and its entry and planned work in the sites. The third section identifies and describes the sites in which SEDL is working, and the status of the work at each of the sites at the end of FY01; this section is the major focus of this report.

Alignment in SEDL's Working Systemically Model (2004)
In December, 2000, the U.S. Department of Education awarded the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) a 5-year research and development (R&D) contract to develop and refine a systemic model to improve student achievement in reading or mathematics in low-performing districts and schools. The Working Systemically model is based on the premise that student achievement will improve as districts and schools build their capacity to work systemically. This report describes 2003-2004 school year activities taken to implement the model in a sample of sites in the southwest region; reports on the districts' and schools' progress to align their curriculum, instruction, and assessment with state standards (one critical aspect of working systemically); and presents preliminary student achievement data for the sites.

Alternative Learning Environments: (Insights on Education Policy, Practice, and Research, Number 6) (1995)
This report spells out sensible goals for alternative schooling and the traits found in successful alternative education programs.

Case Studies of Rural Schools Implementing Comprehensive School Reform Models (2004)
Paper Presented at the Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association in San Diego, CA on April 14, 2004.

Small, rural schools will likely continue to educate significant portions of students in the U.S. while facing the challenges of limited resources, isolation, declining enrollments, aging facilities, limited curricula, and diminishing political influence. These challenges prompted the question of whether small, rural schools could benefit from CSR grants.

The study addressed two major objectives:

Given the relative isolation and limited access to resources, will small, rural schools be able to utilize additional funds to adopt and implement a comprehensive school improvement effort?
If these small, rural schools are able to garner the additional resources and implement a comprehensive school reform model, will such efforts positively impact student learning?

School improvement is a process that depends on the cooperation and involvement of many individuals and groups to make it work. This seems to be particularly true of small schools located in the fish bowl environment of small rural towns. Although these schools are isolated from the social and political mainstream, their small size places their inhabitants under close scrutiny and direct observation. In addition, small towns and their schools can become comfortable with the status quo and conservative in their willingness to explore new educational innovations. Case study methodology was chosen in order to closely examine and observe these dynamics and their influence on an externally driven and funded school improvement process.

For more information on Comprehensive School Reform (CSR), please visit:

Charter Schools: Early Learnings (Insights on Education Policy, Practice, and Research, Number 5) (1995)
This concise policy brief examines six challenges developers encounter when planning and implementing charter schools and offers direction for those crafting legislation and developing school charters.

CSR Awards Database: Schools Awarded CSR Funds to Implement Comprehensive School Reform Models
This nationwide database lists information about schools that have been awarded CSR funds to implement research-based comprehensive reform models.

CSRD Connections: Whatever it Takes: The Challenge of Comprehensive Reform (2000)
This newsletter will bring you articles and discussions about implementation of school reform programs that will help support you through your first year of reform efforts and beyond.

CSRD Connections: Strategies for Change: Implementing a Comprehensive School Reform Program (2000)
This newsletter bring you articles and discussions about implementation of school reform programs that will help support you through your first year of reform efforts and beyond.

Finding Common Ground: Creating Local Governance Structures (1993)
This report profiles several state initiatives that change the roles of state and local governments in the governance of service and systems for children and their families.

Follow-up Study of Rural Schools: Implementing CSR Programs in the Southwest (2003)
To determine whether isolated and small rural schools could fully participate in the Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) conducted a follow-up CSR study in Fall 2002 and its predecessor study (Carlson, 2000). The follow-up study focused on the same five rural schools featured in the predecessor study to learn the degree to which they were able to fully implement their CSR programs over the three-year period of their respective grants.

Follow-up Study of Schools Implementing Comprehensive School Reform in the Southwest (2003)

Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) programs were implemented in 1998 in five states working with the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL). SEDL's five-state region includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. This study examined the implementation status of CSR programs since funding ended. Two hundred and sixty-eight surveys were distributed to schools that received CSR funding. In addition, on-site visits were conducted to a sample of school in each state. School and student performance, as available, was also examined.

This study examines the following four aspects of the Comprehensive School Reform programs:

Student performance
Program components still in place
Factors contributing to program continuation
Information on the model provider

For more information on Comprehensive School Reform (CSR), please visit:

Implications of the No Child Left Behind Act for States in the Southwest Region (2002)
This paper helps educational leaders in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas understand the main law changes and the current situation in these states concerning new provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Progress of Education in Louisiana, The (1999)
This paper describes the history and progress of education in Louisiana and how various factors influence teaching in the state, including educational reform initiatives in Louisiana and changes in critical policies.

Progress of Education in Texas, The (2000)
This paper describes the history and progress of education in Texas and how various factors influence teaching in the state.

Progress Report to Districts and Schools: SEDL's Working Systemically Model (2003)
A report of the findings based on analyses of more than 260 interviews with teachers, administrators, parents, and other staff and field notes of SEDL coordinators who worked with the districts.

Redefining Education Governance: The Charter School Concept (1995)
This paper reviews the public and professional values that converged in shaping charter school policies.

School Context: Bridge or Barrier to Change? (1992)
This guide examines some contextual factors that can support or block efforts to improve schools. It discusses the role of school resources, policies, and rules in change, how attitudes and beliefs of school administrators, faculty, and students shape school change, cultural norms in school change, and definitions of at-risk students and context.

SEDL Letter, Volume XVI, Number 2: Changing High Schools, Changing Our Future (2004)
This issue of SEDL Letter explores how high schools are creating new learning environments to better meet the needs of a changing student population. We learn about practical ways schools can improve achievement and visit Irving ISD to find out how smaller learning communities enrich learning. We also discuss SEDL's Active Learning with Technology, Teachers as Leaders professional development, and work in school safety.

SEDL's Working Systemically Model: Final Report (2006)
From December 2000 through December 2005, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) developed and refined a systemic model to improve student achievement in reading or mathematics in sites composed of low-performing districts and schools. This report describes the Working Systemically model developed under this contract, presenting analyses of data related to its impact in 12 sites distributed across SEDLÕs five-state region.

SEDLetter, Volume X, Number 4: Building for Learning (1998)
This issue of SEDLetter looks at some of the challenges of matching school facilities design, construction, or renovation to the goals and values of people in schools and communities.

Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) Awards Database (2003)
This nationwide database lists information about districts and schools that have been awarded SLC funds. Each record contains demographic information, information from the grant application, and a list of the structures and strategies each school is implementing.

Vouchers: Yea or Nay (Insights on Education Policy, Practice, and Research, Number 12) (2000)
This paper reviews the status of publicly funded voucher programs in the United States, discusses some of the issues shaping the movement, and examines research about some of the most common questions posed by public voucher programs. I

Will our Phones Go Dead? The Changing Role of the Central Office: Issues About Change, Volume 2, Number 4 (1993)
This paper proposes new roles for central office staff, illustrated with examples from three school districts. It explains site-based management, lists nine metaphors used to describe the new administrator's functions, and describes three school districts undergoing transformation from central control to site-based management.

Inclusion: The Pros & Cons: Issues About Change, Volume 4, Number 3 (1995)
This paper provides a balanced look at the issues arising from current policies toward inclusion and maps out considerations school and district leaders should keep in mind when setting special education policies.

Principal's Role in the Instructional Process: Implications for At-Risk Students: Issues About Change, Volume 1, Number 3 (1991)
This paper focuses on the interactions and six behaviors of principals and teachers who work to change and improve schools for children at risk.

Rural Students at Risk in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas (1995)
This monograph reviews the evolution of the term "at risk," and synthesizes research, data, and the literature on at-risk students in rural and small schools.

Safe Schools: Lessons from the Sites: Issues About Change, Volume 5, Number 2 (1995)
This paper introduces important elements of effective safe school programs and describes specific safe school programs undertaken at a Texas high school, a New Mexico middle school, and a Louisiana elementary school.

SEDLetter, Volume VIII, Number 2: School Safety (1995)
This SEDL Letter focuses on the issue of school safety including how to make school safe, school safety programs and resources for school safety.

Students: How They View Learning and Their Schools: Issues About Change, Volume 5, Number 3 (1995)
This concise summary of SEDL case studies reveals how students define successful learning, how students perceive classroom relationships, what motivates students to succeed in school, how students see teachers' actions as helpful to learning, and how students wish their teachers would act.

Educator Exchange Resource Guide (1999)
This guide is for teachers and administrators interested in participating in or beginning their own teacher exchange program with another country.

Guía de recursos para intercambios educativos (1999)
Esta guía es para maestros y administradores interesados en participar en, o iniciar, un programa de intercambio con otro país.

Leading Change from the Classroom: Teachers as Leaders: Issues About Change, Volume 4, Number 4 (1995)
This paper discusses what teacher leadership is, why it is important, and what we know about the working lives of teacher-leaders.

Mentoring Beginning Teachers: Lessons from the Experience in Texas (2000)
This paper contains research on teacher mentoring programs as a strategy to address beginning teacher quality and retention.

Professional Development and Teachers' Construction of Coherent Instructional Practices: A Synthesis of Experiences in Five Sites (2000)
This publication documents what kinds of support teachers need and to develop strategies, tools, activities, and resources to support teacher growth.

SEDLetter, Volume XIII, Number 2: Teachers - They Matter Most (2001)
This issue of SEDLetter focuses on teacher quality, alternative certification programs, a successful permanent substitute program, and a teacher mentoring initiative in Arkansas.

Teaching for Diversity (1994)
This publication examines two related policy issues critical for teacher education: the need for teachers to teach increasingly diverse student populations, and the need to increase the numbers of racial and ethnic minority teachers.

Annotated Bibliography of Resources: for educational reform, coherent teaching practice, and improved student learning (1999)
This database of reference materials provides resources for professionals to utilize in developing an understanding of issues related to educational reform, coherent teaching practice, and improved student learning.

Instructional Coherence: The Changing Role of the Teacher (2000)
This paper shows that policymakers and researchers have changed their views about school improvement and the role of teachers in the process of translating policy coherence into improved instructional coherence and student learning.

Price: $7

Renovar el Sentido de la EnseÒanza (1999)
Este folleto anima a profesores a recordar por qué se hicieron profesores en primer lugar, y después ayuda a cambiar sus pr‡cticas para hacerlas m‡s significativas para sus estudiantes y el aprendizaje de ellos.

Price: $7

Restoring Meaning to Teaching (1999)
This booklet engages teachers in recalling why they became teachers in the first place, and then changes their practice to make it more meaningful for children and their learning.

SEDL Letter, Volume XVII, Number 2: Leadership for Learning (2005)
This issue of SEDL Letter discusses strategies that can help education leaders ensure that students are well served.

SEDLetter, Volume IX, Number 3: Constructivism (1996)
This issue of SEDLetter includes the articles: (1) The Practice Implications of Constructivism, (2) Resources for Constructivism, (3) Is it Constructivism?, and (4) New Community Networks: Wired for Change.

SEDLetter, Volume XI, Number 2: At the Heart of the Matter: Improving Teaching and Learning Through Professional Development (1999)
This issue of SEDLetter includes the articles: (1)Teachers and Students: The Relationship at the Heart of the Matter, (2) Renewing Teachers, Reforming Schools Through Professional Learning Communities, (3) Student-centered Activities and Technology Spark Learning, and (4) Learning a New Language in Texas: TEKS for LOTE and Professional Development in Foreign Languages Education.

SEDLetter, Volume XII, Number 2: Diversity in Our Schools: New Opportunities for Teaching and Learning (2000)
This issue of SEDLetter includes the articles: (1) A Changing Nation, (2) The Multiple Dimensions of Diversity, (3) Minority Teaching Shortage, (4) Language Minority Problems, (5) Bilingual Immersion at Martin Elementary, (6) Arkansas District Welcomes English-Language Learners, (7) Diversity Training, and (8) Resources for Diversity Issues.

SEDLetter, Volume XIII, Number 1: Changes and Challenges for Rural Schools (2001)
This issue of SEDLetter includes the articles: (1) When Rural Traditions Really Count, (2) Service Learning Sparks Community and Student Achievement in Balmorhea, (3) Change is a Constant in Cochiti, (4) Oklahoma's Master Teacher Project Leads Teacher Along a Professional Path, (5) Changing Practice to Meet Student Needs in Humphrey. (6) Parkin Elementary School Networks for Success, and (7) Resources for Rural Schools.

SEDLetter, Volume XIV, Number 2: Within Our Reach - Higher Student Achievement (2002)
The issue of SEDLetter concentrates on the factors that contribute to increased student learning and achievement, including the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or No Child Left Behind

Using Reflection to Promote Instructional Coherence (2000)
This publication addresses changing the school environment from a reactive atmosphere to a reflective one to support the teachers' personal growth.