The Realities of Translating Research into Classroom Practice

This paper synthesizes key findings to facilitate the translation of research into classroom practice and provides guidelines for how effective instructional practices might be implemented, supported, and sustained in schools. Excerpts from a case study are presented to show how research‐based instructional approach translates into classroom practices in a local school district that tailors the approach to the realities of the local situation. In this paper, we review what the research suggests are the functions that allow a person in a leadership role to facilitate the translation of research into classroom practice. We describe how these functions were used to translate research into classroom practice in 2 school districts that are part of the Elementary and Middle School Technical Assistance Center (EMSTAC) project, a national research‐to‐practice effort. Examples of how these principles were put into practice and why different technical assistance approaches were used to implement research‐based practices in a primary and middle school setting are discussed. We conclude with reflections on the intricate nature of effecting change at the local level, and the progress that can be made within those intricacies.     

Are You Satisfied? PhD Education and Faculty Taste for Prestige: Limits of the Prestige Value System

This paper empirically evaluates Caplow and McGee??s (The academic marketplace, 1958) model of academia as a prestige value system (PVS) by testing several hypotheses about the relationship between prestige of faculty appointment and job satisfaction. Using logistic regression models to predict satisfaction with several job domains in a sample of more than 1,000 recent social science PhD graduates who hold tenure-track or tenured faculty positions, we find that the relationship between prestige of faculty appointment and job satisfaction is modified by PhD program prestige. Graduates of high prestige PhD programs value prestige more highly and graduates of low prestige programs value salary more highly. We explain our findings by incorporating reference group theory and a theory of taste formation into our model of the academic PVS, which identifies PhD programs as sites of socialization to different tastes for prestige (a process of cultural transmission) in addition to their well recognized role in transmission of human and social capital. We discuss practical and theoretical implications of our findings in relation to efforts to measure PhD program quality and to understand the structure of academic labor markets.     

One World Publishing,Brought to You by the Internet

The migration from print books to ebooks is more than a change of format; it is also the first step in an ongoing process, whose final outcome is hard to predict. Ebooks are likely to lead to a restructuring of the industry by enabling cross-border commerce. This in turn is likely to lead to difficult disputes over territorial rights. It appears probable that these disputes will be resolved by an assertion of the dominance of the American market and the publishers that already serve it well, as authors are likely to place their rights with practitioners in the largest markets. This in turn will lead to the acquisition of many smaller “national” publishers, which cannot compete on a world stage with truly global publishers. But rather than simply becoming sources of editorial product for American-based global marketing machines, smaller publishers operating in different regions will respond through innovation, both in product design (attempting to do electronically what cannot be done in print) and in developing new marketing plans that the giant publishers would be indisposed to pursue.     

A known group analysis validity study of the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education in US elementary and secondary schools

The Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) provides educators with a tool for principal evaluation based on principal, teacher, and supervisor reports of principals’ learning-centered leadership. In this study, we conduct a known group analysis as part of a larger argument for the validity of the VAL-ED in US elementary and secondary schools. We asked superintendents to select the principals in their district who they believe in performance of their duties are in the top 20 % and the bottom 20 %. We ask how accurately VAL-ED scores can identify membership of the two known groups. Using a discriminant analysis, the VAL-ED places principals in the superintendent groups, on average, 70 % of the time for both elementary and secondary schools. Placement accuracy is greater for the top group than the bottom group.