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There is a significant negative relationship between the percentage of teachers on emergency permits and student achievement at the school level in California schools, after controlling for other student and school characteristics. Generally, the more emergency permit teachers there are in a school, the lower the school's achievement. This phenomenon is examined in the context of other contributors to student achievement such as socio-economic status and school size. The effects of teacher distribution and school selection as contributing factors are considered. In addition, policy and legislative initiatives related to emergency permit teachers that have been recently debated in California will be discussed. Finally, a set of initiatives is proposed that attempt to decrease the need for emergency permit teachers and ensure that those that must be hired due to shortage conditions have the support they need to become credentialed teachers.

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This paper outlines an approach to improving learning and teaching that combines two strong research bases: The research on formative assessment or assessment for learning provides information about what to change; research on teacher learning communities guides decisions about how to change. In this paper we describe the content and process for one model of teacher professional development. Two case studies for two school districts engaged in this process of teacher change are then presented along with descriptions of the observed effects on both the participating teachers and their larger school contexts.

The minute-to-minute and day-by-day use of assessment for learning holds great potential to change the trajectory of student learning in U.S. classrooms. But without effective and scalable systems of professional development that actually lead teachers to adopt these practices, the utility and impact of assessment for learning will be quite limited. Drawing on learning theory, expertise research, and research on effective professional development, this paper presents the theoretical and empirical basis behind an evolving program of professional development that employs school-embedded teacher learning communities as a central component, called Keeping Learning on Track ® . Implementations of the Keeping Learning on Track program in two districts and a consortium of districts are described in detail.