Sports Sciences Commons^™

Can Professional Development Programs Help Close The Achievement Gap?, C. Jayne Brahler

Health and Sport Science Faculty Publications

This paper explores the question of whether it is possible to design professional development programs for teachers that can significantly improve student test results and reduce the achievement gap for students.

The Dayton (Ohio) Foundation and the Montgomery County (Ohio) Educational Service Center, sponsors of The Miami Valley Teacher/Leadership Academy, answer this question with a resounding yes. Recent results indicate that the academy's two-year program, designed to provide professional development to help improve student test scores, not only succeeded in significantly improving the student proficiency mean score, but also considerably reduced the achievement gap for participating students.

This paper includes …

Developing Online Learning Materials For Higher Education: An Overview Of Current Issues, C. Jayne Brahler, Nils S. Peterson, Emily C. Johnson

Health and Sport Science Faculty Publications

The changing roles and challenges for higher education and the increased productivity required of faculty are driving forces for the development of more diverse and efficient teaching methods. Educational trends are toward more learner-centered materials. In response to these trends, colleges and universities are now offering courses at a distance and in forms other than traditional delivery.

Online courseware materials may be a viable means of fulfilling these numerous requirements but are very resource-intensive to develop. Multiple approaches to developing online learning have been tried, with limited success. The primary approach has been for faculty to enter their own course …