ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Advancing High-Quality Professional Learning through Collective Bargaining and State Policy: An Initial Review and Recommendations to Support Student Learning
Author: von Frank, Valerie, Ed.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Collective Bargaining,National Organizations,Faculty Development,Teacher Leadership,Partnerships in Education,Negotiation Agreements,Contracts,School Districts,State Standards,Program Evaluation,Program Implementation,Financial Support,Principals,Administrator Evaluation,Teacher Role,Elementary School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Elementary Secondary Education

This publication is the result of an 18-month project that brought together teams from six states--Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas--along with their national organizations in a groundbreaking partnership to identify collective bargaining language and policies that support high-quality professional development. Three key ideas emerged from this study: (1) Professional development is only as effective as the expectations set for it; (2) Negotiated contract provisions and policy language about professional development are best considered within their unique contexts; and (3) Professional development can be dramatically enhanced through state policy and collective bargaining agreements. The following national recommendations emerged from the work of this initiative: (1) All states and districts should adopt and follow strong standards for professional development; (2) States and districts should develop easily understood, research-based, and graduated rating systems for professional development programs; (3) States and districts should provide adequate resources, including time and financial support, to ensure every educator engages in effective professional learning; (4) All states and districts should immediately implement new or expanded professional learning for school leaders, including principals and teacher leaders, to help them facilitate and integrate high-quality professional development into teachers' workdays; (5) States and districts should require that school leaders' evaluations include how well they implement effective professional learning; and (6) States and districts should work collaboratively to establish parameters or guidance on teachers' role in all decisions related to professional development. Appendices include: (1) Contributors; (2) Participating States' Context Matrix; (3) NSDC's Standards for Staff Development; (4) Glossary; and (5) Source Table.
Building Successful Programs to Address Chemical Risks in Schools: A Workbook with Templates, Tips, and Techniques
Author: US Environmental Protection Agency
Date: 2008-11-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,Workbooks,School Safety,School Buildings,Public Policy,Guidelines,Communication Strategies,Program Implementation,Curriculum Development,Financial Support,Program Administration,Check Lists,Environmental Education,Program Descriptions,Educational Policy,Educational Resources,Public Agencies,Worksheets,Program Development,Program Guides,Planning

Outdated, unknown, or unneeded amounts of dangerous or inappropriate chemicals are often found in K-12 schools across the nation, potentially putting students and staff at risk. Because of the nature of some of the chemicals, even small amounts may present a risk. Thus, dangerous chemicals represent one of the critical environmental health and safety issues schools must address. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign (SC3) promotes chemical management programs that remove outdated, unknown, or unneeded amounts of dangerous or inappropriate chemicals from K-12 schools. SC3 also promotes the creation of policies and practices that prevent future accumulations of chemicals and encourages responsible management practices of chemicals used in schools. These programs aim to minimize exposure to students and staff, thus improving the learning environment and reducing school days lost. This Workbook provides advice and templates developed by successful SC3 programs in various states, localities, and tribes that can be used to help you design or improve upon your own SC3 program. The tips, techniques, and templates in this Workbook can be applied and adapted for SC3 programs being developed and operated at the school, school district, or state level. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 28 exhibits and 2 figures.)
Building Minds, Minding Buildings: Our Union's Road Map to Green and Sustainable Schools
Author: Spake, Amanda
Date: 2008-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Public Schools,Montessori Schools,Magnet Schools,Unions,School Districts,Elementary Schools,Secondary Schools,School Buildings,Physical Environment,Educational Environment,School Construction,Academic Achievement,Sustainable Development,Educational Facilities Design,Conservation (Environment)

Late in 2006, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) released the first report in this series, &quot;Building Minds, Minding Buildings: Turning Crumbling Schools into Environments for Learning.&quot; This second report, which covers the green schools movement is a natural follow-up; it highlights the work of AFT members and affiliates involved in ensuring that schools are designed and built in healthy and sustainable ways. Green schools mean healthier environments for students and staff. Research shows that better environmental quality yields more productive human beings and greater academic achievement for all students. Union leadership and union action are vital to the success of these efforts, and union members want to be a strong voice in the design, construction and operation of green schools. The schools featured in this report are: (1) Lockport Township High School, Lockport Township High School District 205, Illinois; (2) Maywood Academy High School, Los Angeles Unified School District, California; (3) Pleasant Ridge Montessori School, Cincinnati Public Schools, Ohio; (4) Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School, New Haven School District, Connecticut; and (5) Tarkington School of Excellence, Chicago Public Schools, Illinois. (Contains 13 endnotes.) [For the &quot;Building Minds, Minding Buildings: Turning Crumbling Schools into Environments for Learning&quot;, see ED497873.]
The Future of VET: A Medley of Views
Author: Beddie, Francesca, Ed.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Collected Works - General
Subjects: Articulation (Education),Educational Change,Foreign Countries,Vocational Education,Essays,Educational Finance,Alignment (Education),Best Practices,Evidence,School Business Relationship,Trend Analysis,Educational Opportunities,Change Strategies,Relevance (Education)

The essays in this publication are intended to stimulate thinking about how the current appetite for vocational education and training (VET) reform can be harnessed to shape a bright future for vocational education. The editors approached six writers and commentators on VET to give their views on the future of VET. The editors asked Robin Ryan, both an historian of and commentator on vocational education, to pull together themes emerging from the various essays. He has articulated five themes: (1) the need for a new &quot;settlement&quot; to address the federal governance of vocational education and, over time, improve funding mechanisms; (2) the better articulation of VET's purposes to serve individuals and communities and VET's role in the tertiary education sector; (3) a more successful marriage of curriculum and competence, including addressing the place of training packages; (4) the use of the history of VET--what's worked and what hasn't--to inform the current reform effort; and (5) the importance of maintaining an employer and industry voice in VET. This publication contains the following essays: (1) Thinking about the future: A medley of views (Robin Ryan); (2) The future of VET: The case for a new VET settlement (Peter Noonan); (3) Who will make it happen for VET? (Myree Russell); (4) An opportunity to be grasped (Robin Shreeve); (5) From VET to tertiary: The future of VET in Australia (Virginia Simmons); (6) Is there a future for the &quot;V&quot; in VET? (John Hart); (7) Curriculum, monitoring and the ladder of opportunity (Gavin Moodie); and (8) The future of VET: or, Allen Ginsberg revisited (Tom Karmel). Individual essays contain references, tables, and figures.
Sizing up State Standards, 2008
Author: American Federation of Teachers
Date: 2008-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: World History,State Standards,Criteria,Teachers,United States History,Curriculum Design,Curriculum Development,Educational Assessment,Academic Standards,Mathematics Curriculum,Science Curriculum,Educational Resources

The members at the American Federation of Teachers examined each state's and Washington, D.C.'s content standards documents to determine whether or not they contain enough information about what students should learn to provide the basis for coherent curricula and assessments. There is no perfect formula for this; they made a series of judgment calls based on a set of criteria. They examined only those documents that states posted on their Web sites as of October 2007 and referred to as the state content standards (see Appendix B). In their findings, they report on each state's standards by level (i.e., elementary, middle and high school). To be judged as having strong content standards at any particular level, a state had to meet their criteria for strong content standards in more than half of the grades associated with that level. Their findings reveal that: (1) States continue to do a better job with their math and science standards; (2) The quality of the standards also varies by level; and (3) Standards that failed to meet their criteria did so for three main reasons: They were repeated, clustered, or had missing or vague content. States should do the following: (1) Develop grade-by-grade standards that are explicit; (2) Bring specific United States and world history into their early elementary standards; (3) Describe what high school students should know and be able to do by course; and (4) Provide instructional guidance and teacher resources to help teachers bring the standards into the classroom. Appendices include: (1) Which Standards Met AFT's Criteria for Clarity, Specificity, and Content?; and (2) Documents Reviewed. (Contains 5 tables.)
Environmental Protection Begins with You: A Guide to Environmental Community Service
Author: US Environmental Protection Agency
Date: 2006-07-00
Type: Collected Works - General
Subjects: Volunteers,College Students,Rural Areas,High School Students,Urban Areas,Advocacy,Musicians,Environmental Education,Program Descriptions,Conservation (Environment),Ecology,Natural Resources,Sustainable Development,Educational Resources,Public Agencies,Student Volunteers,School Community Programs,Community Programs,Recycling,Wastes,Sanitation,Pollution,Glossaries

This guide contains examples of volunteer projects related to solid waste management. Volunteering provides the opportunity to enjoy new experiences, meet new people, learn new skills, and put ideas and talents to work. The stories included in this guide are: (1) Raucous Revelry and Recycling: Penn State Beaver Stadium Post-Game Recycling Volunteer Effort, State College, Pennsylvania; (2) Living and Breathing Recycling at ASU: Arizona State University Recycling, Tempe, Arizona; (3) Kids of All Ages Get Their Recycling Kicks: Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County, Glenview, Illinois; (4) Receptive Rural Recycling: Perry County Recycling, Perry County, Pennsylvania; (5) A History of Excellence: Seattle University's Recycling Program, Seattle, Washington; (6) Floridians Help Protect the Environment: Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach County, Florida; (7) Volunteers Instill an Environmental Ethic: Columbia Public Works, Columbia, Missouri; (8) Fighting Illegal Dumping and Littering: PA CleanWays, Greensburg, Pennsylvania; and (9) Defending the Planet One Beat at a Time: Rock the Earth, Denver, Colorado. A glossary is included. (Contains 27 resources.)
Modelling Changes in Employer Satisfaction between 2005, 2007 and 2009. Technical Paper
Author: Roberts, David
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Vocational Education,Employer Attitudes,Satisfaction,Employment Qualifications,Apprenticeships,Trainees

This paper investigates change in employer satisfaction with vocational education and training (VET) between the years 2005 and 2009. Employer satisfaction was measured using the Survey of Employer Use and Views of the VET System, conducted biennially since 2005. Key measures from the survey are employer satisfaction with: vocational qualifications as a job requirement; apprentices and trainees; and nationally recognised training. To determine whether the distribution of responding employers accounts for the large differences in survey estimates, employer satisfaction is modelled taking into account the size and industry of responding employers. Appended are: (1) Differences in the survey estimates; and (2) Regression results. (Contains 11 tables and 3 figures.)
A Bibliometric Study: An Author Analysis of "Library Quarterly" 1993-2003 (Volumes 63-73)
Author: Ross, Sheletha
Date: 2010-08-26
Type: Information Analyses
Subjects: Library Science,Periodicals,Journal Articles,Authors,Book Reviews,Library Services,Information Sources,Electronic Journals,Bibliographic Databases,Academic Libraries,School Size,Colleges

In an academic library, the use of online databases and electronic journals is becoming more prevalent. Such resources are being used to assist in distance education programs and online learning environments. Students in other states have access to the same information available to students who live close to campus. The use of these sources has major implications for libraries, including budgetary constraints, collection development, and the role of the librarian. Using volumes 63 through 73 of "Library Quarterly" published in 1993 through 2003, the study examines developing trends in content of the articles published, repeat authorship, and author affiliation. In conducting the research, it was hypothesized that for repeat authorship, more contributors to "Library Quarterly" for volumes 63-73 (1993-2003) are from colleges or universities with 5000 or more students. Secondly, that more than 50 percent of the articles published in the latter five-year period (1999-2003) than the first five-year period (1993-1998) are about the use of online sources, i.e. electronic journals, database subscriptions, etc. for "Library Quarterly." Five hundred seventy-five of the 772 articles included in the study for volumes 63-73 of "Library Quarterly" are about book reviews, which is 74.5 percent. The second leading topic is library science with 127 of the 772 articles having it as a subject, which is 16.5 percent. Combining subjects such as electronic and Internet yield only 3 of out 772 articles, which is 0.39 percent. This would indicate that the major focus of articles in "Library Quarterly" deals with the physical and practical aspects of librarianship and library and information science. The large number of book reviews indicates a keen interest in collection development. The shortage of articles about electronic sources, databases and online subscriptions could be attributed to the audience. If the audience does not have monies in their library budgets for electronic information, then it would be a disservice for "Library Quarterly" to write about services that cannot be used. Collection development, on the other hand, is a continuous process for all libraries. Suggestions for additional reading are provided. (Contains 5 tables.)
Evolving with Technology: The Changing Role of the Curriculum Lab at The University of West Alabama
Author: Ross, Sheletha
Date: 2010-08-26
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Educational Quality,Research Libraries,Electronic Journals,Internet,Higher Education,Evaluation,Educational Technology,Educational Environment,Technological Advancement

The purpose of this article was to examine how technological advances in research affect The University of West Alabama's mission as well as its resources available to students through the curriculum lab as the lab should be an integral part of the University's offerings. Living in the age of the instant, the prevalence of information available through electronic resources has grown exponentially. Simply searching a keyword in a browser window can yield thousands and perhaps millions of results in a fraction of a second. With that kind of technological boost, today's university student can be inundated with information. Even pages of a book are available on a small handheld device capable of storing thousands of tomes. How then does a University library compete with such a plethora of information? More specifically, how does a curriculum lab compete with that level of information availability? Quite simply, the Curriculum Lab becomes another tool. The University library is available with print media and electronic journals to assist students with searches as well as teaching students how to navigate through all those available sources in order to distinguish a credible source from a Wikipedia entry. The Curriculum Lab goes a step further by offering credible sources in a hands-on environment in which students can learn to develop skills and use educational sources in order to most effectively teach their future students. Because of the availability of electronic resources coupled with the need to effectively evaluate those resources and the University's mission to provide opportunities for quality education, the curriculum lab becomes an integral part of the University's mission. Examining the University's mission and how the curriculum lab fits into how the University offers materials to different types of student learners showed that the availability of technology has a positive effect on the materials available to students and showed that the curriculum lab is an essential part of assisting students in sifting through materials to find credible sources. The University must find methods in which to show students that the curriculum lab is an invaluable tool to finding information necessary to making their education the most beneficial to them and their future students. (Contains 4 footnotes.)
Behavior-Management Techniques for Safe Schools. Classroom Tips
Author: American Federation of Teachers
Date: 2010-03-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Employees,Discipline,Violence,Educational Quality,Personal Narratives,Discipline Problems,Classroom Techniques,Student Behavior,School Safety,Educational Environment,School Districts,Administrator Role,Teacher Role,Teacher Administrator Relationship,Parent Participation,Prevention,Intervention,Interpersonal Competence,Self Control,Behavior Modification,Bullying,Victims of Crime,Unions

Schools remain one of the safest environments for children. However, in far too many schools, a lack of respect for the authority of teachers and other school employees, as well as for the rights of other students, is undermining the ability of schools to provide students with a quality education. Even in the best schools, employees often experience frustration and feel abandoned in their efforts to maintain a safe and orderly learning environment. Many teachers can relate personal stories of administrators undermining their attempts to maintain order by letting student offenders get away with disruptive behavior. Solving school violence and discipline problems isn't easy, but it can be done. Ultimately, it requires a districtwide commitment to safe, orderly schools, including a real effort by district officials to stand behind school employees with the support they need--and a commitment by administrators to forge a cooperative effort with school employees aimed at educating students, parents and members of the community about the need for tough but fair discipline policies. This paper offers a list of effective behavior-management techniques.
Stronger Together
Author: American Federation of Teachers
Date: 2010-03-15
Type: Opinion Papers
Subjects: Higher Education,Teacher Salaries,Labor Force,College Faculty,College Administration,Unions,Tenure,Faculty Workload,Educational Finance,Part Time Faculty,Teaching Assistants,Job Security,Employment Level,Research,Nontenured Faculty,Governance,Teaching Conditions

A combination of destructive trends in higher education--shrinking state budgets, stagnant student aid, the growth of corporate-style management, the overuse and exploitation of contingent faculty, increasing workloads and attacks on academic freedom--is weakening the educational integrity and professionalism of American colleges and universities. About three-quarters of the instructional workforce today is made up of contingent faculty who teach more than half of all undergraduate courses in the United States. Combined, these trends have placed the higher education workforce under siege. Faculty and staff cannot afford to allow those who want to impose corporate-style management on higher education to sow discord by pitting various segments of the campus workforce against one another. They may attract allies in the administration and among policy-makers. But in the first instance, only their unions have the power, the structure and the will to take a stand to ensure a higher education workforce that is built on good, stable and secure jobs, and on the concept of equal pay for equal work. They need to do what unions are designed to do best: use their collective power to improve working conditions for everyone, particularly for those who are most exploited.
Collective Bargaining Toolkit: Taking on the Academic Staffing Crisis
Author: AFT Higher Education
Date: 2009-10-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Higher Education,College Administration,Teacher Administrator Relationship,Faculty College Relationship,Politics of Education,College Faculty,Employment Practices,Collective Bargaining,Unions,Educational Change,Job Security,Organizational Communication

The loss of full-time tenure faculty positions along with the overuse and financial exploitation of contingent faculty (part-time, full-time nontenure track and graduate employees) are roiling higher education around the country. This is called the academic staffing crisis. Many are undoubtedly working through the bargaining process to improve the pay, benefits, and job security provisions that members receive. This report provides advice on how to take the important bargaining work that one is already doing, incorporate into it an effective campaign to improve academic staffing, and in the process build a stronger, more active local union organization. (Contains a list of AFT resources.)[This report was also produced by Faculty and College Excellence (FACE).]