great deal of confusion exists among elementary school teachers, supervisors, and administrators regarding the kinds of experiences children should have in an elementary school science program. The confusion has been intensified by two opposing philosophies. One group would establish a rigid sequence of science experiences for each grade level; another group would relegate science to an inferior position in relation to other elementary school subjects. The net result has been that science instruction is often dependent upon the amount of effort that individual teachers are willing to exert. science is far too vital in modern living to be left to the caprice of individual teachers.

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This historical case study of Bank Street College of Education examines the organizational arrangement of an independent professional school as an alternative to standard college/university-based schools of education. Bank Street College of Education claims to be a school with a clear, purposeful mission that is organized in a free-standing arrangement. This study tests the efficacy of that claim by looking at five criteria for schools of education: clear mission, strong leadership, consonant external relations, mission-supported research, and strong structure; over five periods of time.;Using Burton Clark's (1971) theory of organizational saga and Grant and Riesman's (1978) notion that an organization uses its distinctiveness to generate necessary resources, Bank Street College was examined to see if and how it has maintained a distinctive mission.;It was discovered that Bank Street has a strong, operable institutional saga supported by the charismatic leadership of the founding leader, Lucy Sprague Mitchell. It was also found that environmental congruence has strengthened the philosophical mission of the College, but has diffused the operationality of the mission. Although Bank Street offers an interesting alternative to standard college/university-based schools of education, its dependence on external funding makes its mission vulnerable to dilution.;Further research is needed to investigate the environmental vulnerability of mission-specific organizations.

When a coach empathetically listens to another person's ideas, thoughts, and concerns, the coach communicates that the other person's life is important and meaningful. This may be the most important service that a coach can provide. (Knight, 2007, p.43).;This study explored whether instructional coaches that completed the 20-hour Evocative Coaching model training program, which included specific training in empathy, significantly improved their emotional intelligence (EI). A mixed method design was employed. Quantitative analysis examined gain scores in an identical pretest and posttest measure of EI, using the EQmentor (Justice, 2010). The qualitative portion of the study addressed changes participants perceived to their level of EI as a result of the training and their perception of how it affected their performance as instructional coaches.;of nearly 200 people in seven cohorts, who completed the training between January 2011 and May 2012, 90 participants elected to participant in the study. The treatment group consisted of administrators, teachers, coaches, and personnel in instructional support positions from eight states within the United States and two countries outside of the United States. Nine participants were interviewed for the qualitative portion of the research study, four whose EI scores increased and five whose EI scores decreased.;Results from the EQmentor (Justice, 2010) revealed that the overall emotional quotient (EQ) score and interpersonal composite score showed a statistically significant increase as did the subscales of motivation, empathy, and social skills. The subscales of self-awareness, self-regulation, and the intrapersonal composite score did not show a significant change in the full sample, but did for those participants who had volunteered to take the training (as opposed to those who were directed to do so).;Themes emerging from the participants interviewed included increased awareness, improved listening, expressing empathy, Nonviolent Communication, emotional intelligence, observation tools, and instructional leadership. Overall, the participants felt the Evocative Coaching model training was a positive influence on their practice as instructional leaders. Specifically, the instructional coaches felt the training helped them to grow in the following areas: a) by using the observational tools for observing and not evaluating the teachers; b) by increasing awareness of their coaching presence and laying the groundwork for their coaching conversation; c) by using mindful listening to stop whatever else was going on and just listen; and d) by using authentic empathy coaches were able to appreciate the experience of the other person and foster new change possibilities and therefore improve the instructional practices of those they were coaching.;INDEX WORDS: Instructional coaches, Emotional intelligence, Empathy.

Socioeconomically disadvantaged and African American students consistently perform lower on literacy assessments that measure reading and writing achievement than their dominant culture peers. The changing nature of literacy itself is making this literacy problem even more challenging. Competencies for interacting in digital contexts, identified as new literacies, are necessary to effectively read, write, and communicate using the Internet and other information and communication technologies [ICTs]. According to extant literature, African Americans and socioeconomically disadvantaged students are more likely than their dominant culture peers to use digital technologies to build traditional literacy (Au, 2006; Harwood & Asal, 2007).;Teachers have an important role in providing all students with the technological experiences that will allow them to be literate in the 21st century (IRA, 2009). The changing nature of literacy underscores the importance of professional development for literacy and technology integration (Karchmer, 2001; Watts-Taffe & Gwinn, 2007). The purpose of this study was to understand how and why teachers may engage students from a socioeconomically disadvantaged school with a predominately African American student population in different digital technological literacy experiences than students from a more socioeconomically advantaged school with a large percentage of African American students. The study focused especially on the roles professional development may play in creating students' inequitable experiences with new literacies.;Examined through the lens of Kincheloe and McLaren's (2005) reconceptualized critical theory: hegemony and ideology, this research study discovered educational practices, including professional development about literacy and technology integration, that have possible roles in reproducing inequalities in education.

The purposes of this study were to explore the relationships between teacher efficacy and changes in teacher behavior and student learning espoused by the standards-based reform movement and to examine the impact of a curriculum innovation on student learning and teacher efficacy The study was designed to target sophisticated pedagogical behavior associated with setting high learner expectations.;The context for the research was a federally funded project to develop and implement model lessons in elementary social studies in an urban setting. The sample was comprised of 25 experimental and 17 comparison teachers. Instrumentation included two measures of teacher efficacy, two measures of teacher behavior, and three measures of student earning.;Findings in regard to teacher efficacy were very limited. A factor analysis of the Social Studies Teacher Efficacy Scale uncovered a third factor dealing with lack of impact with difficult students that appeared to be distinct from perceptions of general efficacy, but this adapted instrument Only accounted for 41% of the valiance. No correlations between measures of teacher efficacy and total teacher behaviors on the observation instruments were detected, although inconsistent correlations occurred with some of the sub-categories. Weak to mild negative correlations were found between two of the sub-scales of the subject-specific efficacy measure and two of the measures of student learning. Pre- and post-test scores on efficacy did not change.;Findings in regard to the curriculum innovation were more promising. Both teachers and external observers reported a significant increase (p < .01) in total behaviors and on four subcategories related to educational reform expectations. Teachers self-reported higher levels of behaviors than observers. Significant gains (p < .01) on all three measures of student learning accrued, but no differences emerged between groups. An examination of the performance of gifted, high, middle, and low achievement students from the experimental sample only showed differences by group and measure.;The study confirmed that the measurement of teacher efficacy is complex and current instrumentation weak. There was evidence that certain dimensions of the construct may be related to specific categories of teacher behavior dealing with reform expectations, but no clear pattern emerged. Although them was tentative evidence that teacher behaviors were positively impacted by the introduction of the new curriculum, these changes appeared too shallow to affect student learning. In spite of incorporating key features from the change literature into the project design, many teachers had difficulty applying these lessons in the classroom and the overall implementation during the pilot phase was limited.