Marie Reed Elementary Embraces Japanese 'Lesson Study' - washingtonpost.com:
"It is a wholly different approach from the workshop-with-an-outside-expert model that dominates professional development for U.S. teachers, according to a February report by Stanford University researchers. And although its effect on student achievement has not been well-documented by researchers, there is some promising evidence: A 2006 study showed that the increase in test scores over four years at a California school where teachers engaged in lesson study was triple that of other schools in the same district. A broader study of 15 schools in California showed that at schools in which teachers met two or three times a month to address students' specific academic struggles, test scores rose relative to the district average."
"It is a wholly different approach from the workshop-with-an-outside-expert model that dominates professional development for U.S. teachers, according to a February report by Stanford University researchers. And although its effect on student achievement has not been well-documented by researchers, there is some promising evidence: A 2006 study showed that the increase in test scores over four years at a California school where teachers engaged in lesson study was triple that of other schools in the same district. A broader study of 15 schools in California showed that at schools in which teachers met two or three times a month to address students' specific academic struggles, test scores rose relative to the district average."