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This study assessed teacher education students' perceptions and satisfaction of their learning experiences concerning an accelerated summer pilot program. In addition, the study provided information on the impact and teaching effectiveness of the accelerated teacher education summer pilot program on participating students. Results from this study determined that compelling information and significant differences were found between students who attended summer session I and summer session II. Most importantly this study documented statistical significant differences among the two groups for questions regarding, "the clarity of exam questions," (t(198) = 10.460, p less than 0.05), "exams' coverage of important aspects of the course," (t(198) = 16.566, p less than 0.05), "overall quality of the textbooks(s)," (t(198) = 25.983, p less than 0.05), "problems or questions presented by the instructor for small group discussions," (t(198) = 1.971, p less than 0.05) and "work load for this course in relation to other courses of equal credit," (t(198) = 2.518, p less than 0.05). Open-ended data was retrieved from the Student Survey and Praxis Workshop Survey. The open-ended data was used to corroborate the findings from the Student Instructional Report II, Student Survey and Praxis Workshop Survey item analysis. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications on future research and prevention programming. (Contains 5 tables.)

High-quality professional development for public school teachers is directly tied to student achievement, teacher quality and retention, and national education priorities (Kroeger et al. 2000). To stay current with the knowledge, skills, and expertise that students need to succeed in the twenty-first century, educators must increasingly retool their instructional strategies and technologies, upgrade the curriculum through new research methods, take responsibility for every student's competence in core content, and improve student-learning outcomes. The Center for Defense and Homeland Security (CDHS) at Fayetteville State University (FSU) in North Carolina has instituted a new research and development initiative. The emphasis is on mitigating natural and man-made catastrophic disasters, as well as recovery, within the United States. This research and development initiative is partnering with industry; higher education; the Department of Defense (DOD); the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and other federal, state, and local entities. This professional development initiative offered an extensive collaboration with university faculty and public school teachers to enhance educational opportunities for middle-grades students and also to interest students in STEM careers. The initiative was presented to seven local school districts to demonstrate to participating teachers the appropriate curricular connections with the Common Core areas of statistical thinking and content related to homeland security and defense. This work was a collaborative effort between local education agencies (LEA), the FSU School of Education, and the CDHS. The LEAs welcomed the workshop initiative to help them interpret and implement the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, with a focus on statistics concepts in middle school. This article describes how the workshop was implemented, the participants and subject-matter experts involved, and the strategies and tools that were used to make it a success.

Web 2.0 is expanding the way general and special educators collaborate, especially in co-teaching situations. This article draws attention to several free web-based tools and a co-teaching lesson plan supplement that can be used to incorporate Web 2.0 technologies during the co-planning, co-teaching and shared reflection processes between the general and special educator. This article highlights five Web 2.0 applications that can be incorporated to save time, document consultation and co-teaching strategies, as well as overcome many co-teaching barriers, such as lack of planning time. Finally, recommendations for teachers on how to successfully implement Web 2.0 tools within the co-teaching environment will be shared, along with considerations for working within district guidelines regarding information sharing online. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)