Search Results: Related Resources

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Assessment; Improving School Performance;

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: $66

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.


		Price: $15

101 Questions and Answers about Standards, Assessment, and Accountability (2001)
This reference book provides clear answers to commonly asked questions about the most pressing issues in education.

Price: $15

101 More Questions & Answers About Standards, Assessment, and Accountability (2004)
A follow-up to 101 Questions, this book extends the conversation on accountability, standards, and assessment and includes discussions of Power standards, grading, and writing to improve student achievement

Price: $15

National Staff Development Council Standards Assessment Inventory: Summary Report of Instrument Development Process and Psychometric Properties (2003)
The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) contracted with the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) to develop a new NSDC standards assessment instrument. This request was in response to a series of questions over the years about the psychometric properties of the old instrument and NSDC’s desire to update it. SEDL’s Evaluation Services (ES) agreed to develop a reliable and valid staff development assessment instrument aligned with NSDC’s standards for quality professional development. The instrument is to be completed by teachers and other school staff and is intended to measure the degree to which a school’s professional development program adheres to the standards.

Rapid Response: GED Test and State Assessment Completion for High School Diploma (2009)
This paper was produced by SEDL’s Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) in response to a request for information about how many states are allowing high school students who complete the General Educational Development (GED) tests to receive a high school diploma instead of a GED, thereby increasing the high school graduation rates.

Change Process; Improving School Performance;

The Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle: Introduction (2008)
The professional teaching and learning cycle (PTLC) is a professional development process in which teachers collaboratively plan and implement lessons aligned to state standards. PTLC is a critical component of the Working Systemically approach that directly impacts classroom instruction and student learning.

Change Process; Improving School Performance; Leadership;

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.

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.

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.

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.

Working Systemically Online Survey (2009)
SEDL offers free access to the Working Systemically online survey, which is a data collection instrument allows a coordinator to set up and deploy a 34-question online survey to gather data from teachers, administrators, and other school stakeholders regarding the working systemically principles (e.g. use of data, communicating priorities, access to materials, professional development, etc.). The results are automatically tallied for the coordinator, and results can be viewed by subgroups customized by the survey coordinator. Sign up for a free survey coordinator account today!

Improving School Performance: Accountability

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Improving School Performance: Finance

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.

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.

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

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 stateÕs 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.

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.

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.

Improving School Performance: Leadership

Manual for Assessing Open-Ended Statements of Concern about an Innovation (1998)
This manual equips you with procedures for analyzing and understanding teachers' concerns when presented as open-ended statements.

Price: $18

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Superintendents of Small Districts and School Improvement: Planning, Providing Resources, and Professional Development: Issues About Change, Volume 3, Number 1 (1993)
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Publications Bundle (2000)
These publications includes stories and reports of research on how school professional staff - teachers and principals - organize as a learning community and 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.

Price: $20

Show Me the Proof!: Tools and Strategies to Make Data Work for You (2005)
Show Me the Proof!, a companion handbook to Beyond the Numbers, is designed to offer practical, user-friendly tools and strategies to apply the right tools of analysis to the right data for the right purposes.

Price: $20

Beyond the Numbers: Making Data Work for Teachers & School Leaders (2005)
In this book, Dr. White describes the foundation principles for data analysis and provides the strategies needed to take action based on that analysis.

Price: $20

Energizing Staff Development Using Film Clips: Memorable Movie Moments That Promote Reflection, Conversation, and Action (2006)
This book discusses television and film clips that staff developers can use to encourage discussion and reflection on pertinent common themes.

Price: $25

A Trainer's Companion: Stories to Stimulate Reflection, Conversation, Action (2004)
This collection of stories offers leaders and trainers opportunities to work with staff members to develop new perspectives on old problems and provide innovative, alternate ways of seeing issues and challenges.

Price: $22

Improving School Performance: School as an Organization

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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:

Case Studies of Rural Schools Implementing Comprehensive School Reform Models (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. 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?

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.

Moving NSDC's Staff Development Standards into Practice: Innovation Configurations Volume II - Institution of Higher Education (2007)
This CD-ROM is one of a set of five CD-ROMs that provide Innovation Configurations maps for higher education institutions. The maps are accompanied by introductory material that explains the concept and use of Innovation Configurations and their application to the staff development standards.

Price: $12

Moving NSDC's Staff Development Standards into Practice: Innovation Configurations Volume II - State Education Agency (2007)
This CD-ROM is one of a set of five CD-ROMs that provide Innovation Configurations maps for state education agencies. The maps are accompanied by introductory material that explains the concept and use of Innovation Configurations and their application to the staff development standards.

Price: $12

Moving NSDC's Staff Development Standards into Practice: Innovation Configurations Volume II - Professional Association (2007)
This CD-ROM is one of a set of five CD-ROMs that provide Innovation Configurations maps for professional associations. The maps are accompanied by introductory material that explains the concept and use of Innovation Configurations and their application to the staff development standards.

Price: $12

Moving NSDC's Staff Development Standards into Practice: Innovation Configurations Volume II - External Assistance Provider (2007)
This CD-ROM is one of a set of five CD-ROMs that provide Innovation Configurations maps for external assistance providers. The maps are accompanied by introductory material that explains the concept and use of Innovation Configurations and their application to the staff development standards.

Price: $12

Moving NSDC's Staff Development Standards into Practice: Innovation Configurations Volume II - Director of Staff Development (2007)
This CD-ROM is one of a set of five CD-ROMs that provide Innovation Configurations maps for directors of staff development of school systems. The maps are accompanied by introductory material that explains the concept and use of Innovation Configurations and their application to the staff development standards.

Price: $12

Leading Professional Learning Communities: Voices from Research and Practice (2007)
The book illustrates how professional learning communities (PLCs) can help increase leadership capacity, embed professional development in daily work, create a positive school culture and develop accountability. But it also addresses how to manage the conflict that arises, the creativity needed for problem solving, and the courage to challenge existing systems and ways of thinking when necessary.

Price: $30

Southeast Comprehensive Center e-Bulletin, Volume 3, Number 1: School Turnarounds-Recommendations, Actions, and Results (2008)

Improving School Performance: Student Issues

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.

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.

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.

Improving School Performance: Teacher Issues

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.

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.

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.

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.

Southeast Comprehensive Center e-Bulletin, Volume 2, Number 3: Teacher Quality Reports and Resources (2008)

Improving School Performance: Teaching/Learning

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life (1998)
In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer takes teachers on an inner journey toward reconnecting with their vocation and their students Ð and recovering their passion for one of the most difficult and important of human endeavors.

Price: $22

Improving School Performance Leadership

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.

Improving School Performance;

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.

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.

Taking Charge of Change (2006)
This easy-to-read introduction to the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) is a cornerstone in the school-change literature. The book provides concepts, tools, and techniques that educators can use to facilitate school change and improvement programs.

Price: $25

Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement (1997)
This literature review includes examples of schools that have organized professional learning communities and discusses five dimensions of those communities: supportive and shared leadership, shared values and vision, collective creativity, supportive conditions, and shared personal practice. The publication also discusses steps for transforming a school into a professional learning community.


		Price: $15

Issues About Change, Vol. 6, No. 2: Creating a Professional Learning Community: Cottonwood Creek School (1998)
This briefing paper discusses strategies and approaches a school staff can use to develop a collegial organization, as illustrated by the real-life example of Cottonwood Creek High School.

Issues About Change, Vol. 5, No. 2: Safe Schools: Lessons From the Sites (1995)
This briefing 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.

Issues About Change, Vol. 3, No. 2: Changing Mental Frameworks: One High School's Success Through a Triad Partnership (1994)
This briefing paper details how staff, students, and parents changed the culture of a Texas high school, raised expectations, and improved working relationships and student performance.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.


		Price: On Sale! 50% discount during November. Previously $7 Now only $3.50

Renovar el Sentido de la Enseñanza (1999)
Este folleto anima a profesores a recordar por qué se hicieron profesores en primer lugar, y después ayuda a cambiar sus prácticas para hacerlas más significativas para sus estudiantes y el aprendizaje de ellos.


		Price: On Sale! 50% discount during November. Previously $7 Now only $3.50

Rapid Response: Inclusion of GED Recipients in Graduation Rate Calculations for Adequate Yearly Progress (2008)
This resources was developed in response to a request: "Have any states received permission from the United States Department of Education (USDE) to include general equivalency diploma (GED) recipients in their graduation rate calculations for adequate yearly progress (AYP)? If so, can the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) obtain copies of these states’ applications?"

SEDLetter, Volume XII, Number 2 (Dec. 2000): Diversity in Our Schools: New Opportunities for Teaching and Learning (2000)
This issue of the SEDLetter magazine looks at some of the challenges schools are facing as their populations become more diverse. The issue covers topics such as bilingual immersion and diversity training.

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.

Professional Learning Communities: An Ongoing Exploration (2000)
This book reviews the five dimensions along which a school staff must operate to develop a professional learning community and discusses the role such a community plays in school reform.


		Price: $12

Measuring Change Facilitator Stages of Concern: A Manual for Use of the CFSoC Questionnaire (1991)
This book is for use with change facilitators such as principals, staff developers, and teacher leaders who have concerns that are identical in dynamics to those on the front-line of educational innovation.


		Price: $18

Leadership for Changing Schools (2000)
This kit provides seven training modules to guide district leaders and teams as they work with individual schools to make the changes needed to provide a high-quality education for every child.

Price: $100

Restoring Meaning to Teaching (video) (2000)
This video profiles the stories of educators who have engaged in a reflective approach to teaching and learning.

Promoting Teacher Inquiry: A Study Group Approach (2000)
This video provides an overview of key strategies to use with study groups supporting teachers as they learn to improve their practice and student learning.

Standards for Staff Development: Revised Edition (2001)
This book provides the vision and framework for making staff development more responsive to the learning needs of educators and students.

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SEDLetter, Volume XIV, Number 2: Within Our Reach - Higher Student Achievement (2002)
The issue of SEDL Letter 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.

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.

Learning Together, Leading Together: Changing Schools Through Professional Learning Communities (2004)
This book presents a clear definition of a professional learning community and offers practical advice from schools that have successfully modeled or are creating such communities.

Price: $25

Moving NSDC's Staff Development Standards into Practice: Innovation Configurations (2003)
This book provides Innovation Configuration (IC) maps for NSDCÕs 12 professional development standards.

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SEDL Letter, Volume XVI, Number 1: School Finance and Policy: Dollars and Sense (2004)
This issue of SEDL Letter examines a variety of finance issues that policymakers and administrators may face-resource allocation, school finance adequacy, and efficiency. We also examine how technology planning can help meet the needs of all students and hear from a parent how well-defined, fairly implemented discipline policy is for the good of administrators, teachers, parents, and students.

SEDL Letter, Vol. XVI, No. 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.

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.

Implementing Change: Patterns, Principles, and Potholes, 2nd Edition (2005)
In its 2nd edition, this book focuses on how school leaders can use the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to understand, evaluate, and facilitate school change. The text presents a number of research-based models and tools along with examples of how each one supports the change process.

Price: $68

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.

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.

Measuring Implementation in Schools: Using the Tools of the Concerns Based Adoption Model (2006)
This boxed set contains the three Measuring Implementation CBAM manuals; a CD-ROM scoring program; and a DVD that includes interviews with the CBAM developers, Archie George, Gene Hall, and Shirley Hord.

Price: $91

Being a Successful Principal: Riding the Wave of Change Without Drowning (2000)
This book, written by principals for principals, covers a variety of topics including trust, change, assessment, and mediating.

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Living on a Tightrope: A Survival Handbook for Principals (2001)
This handbook of activities helps principals reflect on and analyze how they react in typical situations that they face daily.

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Reflective Practice to Improve Schools: An Action Guide for Educators (2006)
This book offers a roadmap for reflective practice that presents research-based information, ideas, and strategies for engaging in reflective practice.

Price: $35

Measuring Implementation in Schools: The Stages of Concern Questionnaire (2006)
This updated manual explains how to use and score the Stages of Concern (SoC) Questionnaire, which assesses teacher concerns about new programs and practices. A CD-ROM scoring device is included.

Price: $36

Measuring Implementation in Schools: Levels of Use (2006)
This updated manual discusses how individuals behave and react with respect to specific change. The tool helps researchers and evaluators determine the extent to which an innovation is being implemented by distinguishing among three levels of nonuse and five levels of use.

Price: $31

Measuring Implementation in Schools: Innovation Configurations (2006)
This updated manual describes how to use Innovation Configuration Maps to clarify what an innovation or change looks like along a continuum from high-quality implementation to least-desired practices.

Price: $31

Lesson Study: Teachers and Students Learning Together (2005)
The Lesson Study approach helps teachers deepen their content knowledge, adopt effective teaching strategies, and reflect on student learning. This multimedia package uses math instruction as an example and is designed for trainers and team leaders.

Price: $25

Lesson Study DVD (2005)
This 27-minute lesson study video documents implementation of one lesson focusing on direct variation.

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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.

Price: $2500

Texas Focus: The Newsletter of the Texas Comprehensive Center (2009)
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.

Change Facilitator Stages of Concern Questionnaire (CFSoCQ) Online (2009)
This product is an online version of the Change Facilitator Stages of Concern Questionnaire that can be completed online by many participants in a short amount of time. The product provides access for a "survey coordinator" to the online questionnaire as well as to a survey coordination site where the coordinator can customize the questionnaire and define subgroups to allow data for a group to be examined by subpopulations as well as by individuals and by the group as a whole.

Price: $.50

Moving NSDC's Staff Development Standards into Practice: Innovation Configurations (Volume II CD-ROMs - set of five) (2007)
This five CD-ROM set provides Innovation Configurations maps for higher education institutions, state education agencies, professional associations, external assistance providers, and directors of staff development of school systems. The maps are accompanied by introductory material that explains the concept and use of Innovation Configurations and their application to the staff development standards.

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Previously $50 Now only $25.00

SEDL Monthly (Sept. 2008): Helping Struggling Students (2008)
This edition of SEDL Monthly includes information regarding: Response to Intervention (RtI), organizing for effective instruction, a database of resources for best practices, the What Works Clearinghouse review of reading interventions, and the National Center on Response to Intervention.

SEDL Letter, Volume XX, Number 1 (April 2008): Making the Most of Middle School (2008)
This issue of SEDL Letter tackles issues facing middle school educators—the lack of a national policy addressing these years, how U.S. middle schoolers are falling behind in math compared to their peers abroad, whether we should return to a K–8 system, and how afterschool programs can support middle schools.

Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ) Online (2008)
This online version of the Stages of Concern (SoC) Questionnaire enables researchers and evaluators to use their computers to score questionnaires; analyze the results; and produce multiple types of reports, including individual, total-sample, and user-specified subgroup reports.

Price: $.50

Working Systemically in Action: A Guide for Facilitators (2008)
Produced by a team of SEDL staff who drew upon more than 3 decades of school reform research and theory, the Working Systemically approach is a process for school improvement and increased student achievement that focuses on key components and competencies at all levels of the local educational system.

Price: $35.00

Southeast Comprehensive Center e-Bulletin, Volume 3, Number 2: Effective Interventions for Dropout Prevention (2008)

Southeast Comprehensive Center e-Bulletin, Volume 2, Number 2: The Challenge of Educational Leadership (2008)

Southeast Comprehensive Center Spotlight (2009)
The Southeast CC Spotlight highlights resources, materials, technical assistance, and professional development services offered by the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) at SEDL. The newsletter also focuses on the work that SECC does with the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina to build their capacity to implement the programs and goals of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).

Texas Focus, Vol. 1, No. 4 (2008): Collecting, Interpreting and Using Data in the Working Systemically Approach (2008)
This issue of Texas Focus, published by SEDL’s Texas Comprehensive Center, discusses the importance of data—including assessment data—in the Working Systemically model of school improvement.

Evaluation of the Texas High School Completion and Success Grant Initiative, Cycle 2 Final Report (2007)
SEDL and its partners, Gibson Consulting and Academic Information Management, Inc., conducted an evaluation study to determine the degree to which THSCS grant funds have been implemented by grantees to support high school student retention and increase graduation rates and access to higher education. SEDL coordinated and conducted site visits, surveys, and best practices research and served as quality assurance on all project deliverables.

Evaluation of the Texas High School Completion and Success Grant Initiative, Cycle 2 Interim Report (2007)
SEDL and its partners, Gibson Consulting and Academic Information Management, Inc., conducted an evaluation study to determine the degree to which THSCS grant funds have been implemented by grantees to support high school student retention and increase graduation rates and access to higher education. SEDL coordinated and conducted site visits, surveys, and best practices research and served as quality assurance on all project deliverables.

Evaluation of Educator Professional Development Programs Implemented at the Regional and Local Levels Final Report (2006)
SEDL, Gibson Consulting, Academic Information Management, Inc., and two other firms evaluated the statewide teacher training activities funded through the Texas Student Success Initiative, which encompassed the Texas Reading, Mathematics, and Science Teacher Academies. SEDL conducted a literature review of best practices in professional development; expert reviews of academy training materials and resources; and surveys to ascertain how teachers perceived the training and if they were implementing the strategies in the classroom.

Arkansas Education Renewal Zones Initiative - 2007 Final Evaluation Report (2007)
SEDL staff conducted a multiyear evaluation of the ERZ initiative in eight sites across the state of Arkansas. The evaluation included both formative and summative data collection and reporting functions. The primary goals of the evaluation were to document the context in which the ERZ initiative takes place in each site, the implementation of the initiative according to the guidelines specified in the legislation, and the short- and long-term outcomes resulting from the implementation of the initiative.

Education Renewal Zones: Increasing Partnerships and Sharing Resources for School Improvement (2006)
SEDL staff conducted a multiyear evaluation of the ERZ initiative in eight sites across the state of Arkansas. The evaluation included both formative and summative data collection and reporting functions. The primary goals of the evaluation were to document the context in which the ERZ initiative takes place in each site, the implementation of the initiative according to the guidelines specified in the legislation, and the short- and long-term outcomes resulting from the implementation of the initiative. SEDL collaboratively developed a program logic model that was used to identify qualitative and quantitative outcome measures to be monitored as the initiative is implemented.

Rapid Response: Career And Technical Education (2008)
This resource was developed in response to a request: "A state department of education (SDE) served by the Southeast Comprehensive Center has requested that the SECC identify successful U.S. high schools that focus more on technical rather than traditional academic subjects. Also, the SDE would like information on the following: 1. Do these schools require Carnegie units? How are technical courses coded if Carnegie units are awarded? 2. How is credit given for technical job-training classes? 3. What types of terminal degrees are offered at these schools?

Rapid Response: Educating Overage Students (2008)
This resource was produced in response to a request: "A state department of education would like information on how states are educating overage students who may be at least two grades behind and are at risk of dropping out of high school. In particular, some districts want to enroll students with their age group, in an alternative setting, or in a vocational program."

Rapid Response: Project-based Learning (2008)
This resource was produced in response to a request: "How are states across the nation using project-based learning (PBL)? Has PBL been implemented in elementary, middle, and high schools? If so, when was it implemented, and what results have schools and districts experienced?" In response to this request, the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) queried several state departments of education as well as the REL Southeast at the SERVE Center, the National High School Center, and the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) to obtain information on the use of PBL in schools nationwide.

Rapid Response: Pros and Cons of 6-Week and 9-Week Marking Periods (2008)
This resource was produced in response to a request: "What are the pros and cons of 6-week and 9-week marking periods?" In response to this request, the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) queried numerous organizations by e-mail and telephone. The SECC also used several Web search engines to obtain information on school grading (marking) periods. The results are provided along with references and resources that may provide additional information on this topic.

Rapid Response: School Restructuring (2009)
This resource was developed in response to a request from a state departments of education in the Southeast Comprehensive Center’s region that had started the process of working on a takeover plan and wanted to compile research from other states in the area of school and district takeover. The requestor was interested in the development of a white paper on this process thus far in other states, to provide possible direction for its state.

Rapid Response: Statewide Uniform Grading Practices (2009)
This resource was produced in response to a request from a state department of education (SDE) served by the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) that requested information on whether or not other states have uniform grading practices (grading policies and grading scales), and if so, what types of grading scales are used (e.g., 90–100=A, 80–89=B, etc.). In response to this request, SECC staff conducted searches for information on uniform grading practices by reviewing SDE Web sites and education-based resources. They also contacted state department staff and educational research and dissemination organizations for additional information.

Rapid Response: Strategies for Improving Achievement in High-Needs Schools (2008)
This resource was produced in response to a request: "Are there states that have had success in improving achievement at high-needs schools? What strategies have been successful?" In response to this request, the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) queried numerous organizations by e-mail and telephone. The SECC also used several Web search engines to obtain information on strategies for improving achievement in high-needs schools. The results are provided along with references and resources that may provide additional information on this topic.

Rapid Response: Summative Teacher Evaluation (2008)
This resource was created in response to a request: "What research is available on summative teacher evaluation, specifically how long an observation should be conducted and how many are required for validity? What exists in other states?" In response to this request, the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) queried state departments of education (SDEs) and other organizations throughout the U.S. by e-mail and telephone. The SECC also searched numerous Web sites that focus on teacher quality, teacher evaluation, and professional development. This report contains a synopsis of the findings on summative evaluation, a table of the information obtained from contacts and Web sites, and descriptions of resources and references that provide additional information on teacher evaluation processes, tools, and programs.

Rapid Response: Web-Based State Longitudinal Data Systems (2009)
This resource was produced in response to a request from a state department of education (SDE) served by the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC). The SDE requested information on Web-based state data systems that can generate customized reports for stakeholders for analyzing student and school performance. The SDE also would like to identify any states that have Web-based data systems that guide school improvement planning through the retrieval of school data; multiyear, disaggregated student assessment data; and suggested resources for addressing areas in need of improvement. The requester is particularly interested in obtaining access to view other data systems, such as those in the states of Massachusetts and Iowa.

Southeast Comprehensive Center e-Bulletin, Volume 4, Number 1: Improving Teacher Quality and Equitable Distribution of Effective Teachers (2009)
In this edition of the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) e-Bulletin we highlight the issues of teacher quality and the equitable distribution of effective teachers. We hope that the information included in this issue will provide you details on research and practice occurring both nationally and within our region. Be sure to read the stories from our states about their work in this area to find some innovative strategies for addressing both the teacher effectiveness issue and the teacher shortage issue that exists in some areas.

SEDL Letter Volume XXI, Number 1: Improving School Performance (2009)
School improvement isn’t just about schools. It’s also about students and teachers, and how education leaders at all levels—state, district, school, and classroom—work together to help students succeed. This issue of SEDL Letter explores school improvement in a variety of areas.

Improving School Performance; Response to Intervention (RtI);

Response to Intervention (RtI) 2009 Regional Summit on Funding Models (2009)
The objectives of the Response to Intervention Summit on Funding Models were to increase knowledge of funding models for RtI implementation, to develop strategies and action steps for addressing RtI funding, and to increase networking opportunities for improved implementation of funding models

Rapid Response: Response to Intervention Practices (2008)
SEDL's Southeast Comprehensive Center developed this resource in response to a request from a state department of education (SDE) for the following information about Response to Intervention (RtI) practices: For Tiers II and III, what does the research indicate about pupil/teacher ratios for optimal or maximum small group instruction? Do small group size numbers change with grade levels? What does the research indicate about intervention effectiveness beyond implementation fidelity—group size, minutes per day, and days per week?

Rapid Response: Response to Intervention Progress Monitoring Resources for Grades K–12 (2009)
SEDL's Southeast Comprehensive Center developed this resource in response to a request from a state department of education (SDE) for information on response to intervention (RtI) progress monitoring resources for K–12 reading, writing, and mathematics.

Rapid Response: State Policies for Parental Notification of Response to Intervention Processes (2008)
SEDL's Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) developed this resource in response to a request: "Do other states in the southeastern region have written policies regarding Response to Intervention (RtI) and how do those states inform parents of the process?" In response, the SECC queried several state departments of education to obtain the requested information.