Commentary: Align Professional Development, Classroom Practice, and Student Progress in the Curriculum and You'll Improve General Education for all Students

Abstract

I enjoyed reading the articles contained in this special issue not only because they report research findings on general education teachers' implementation of new classroom practices, but because they reflect progress on the fundamental problem in education-the misalignment of specific professional development experiences with changes in instructional practice within the general education classroom with improvement in student outcomes. For too long, strong links between these critical elements of professional development, teaching, and learning have not been forged (Carnine, 1995). Because each of the authors in this issue addressed elements of the solution to this problem in their research, we now know more about solving it. For example, realizing that teachers are not traditionally consumers of educational research (e.g., Kaestle, 1993) and that traditional inservice training is insufficient to result in high-quality classroom implementation, Vaughn et al. selected four research-based practices and taught them to volunteer teachers in an intensive, year-long program of professional development that combined inservice, meetings, and weekly coaching. Recognizing that much of educational research has few implications for teachers in real classrooms (Viadero, 1994), Marks and Gersten sought to engage classroom teachers in interactions organized around their interests and needs as a basis for introducing and sustaining their use of researchbased practices. Further realizing that traditional general education instruction does not adapt easily to the needs of individuals with learning disabilities (LD) (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Bishop, 1992a, 1992b), Fuchs and Fuchs developed and evaluated the effectiveness of combining computerbased assessments and peer-mediated instructional strategies on the rate of individualizing instruction and the resulting improvements in students' rate of academic progress in the curriculum. Also concerned about general educators' adaptation of instruction to fit the needs of diverse learners, Simmons et al. sought to understand teachers' beliefs about influences on stu-