This brief is part of the Affirming Equity, Ensuring Inclusion, and Empowering Action initiative. This brief--which draws on a thorough review of existing research, original data analysis, and conversations with institutional leaders and experts--urges college leaders and admissions officials to address longstanding inequities in college access by…

Honours programmes have successfully provided academic rigour, special scholarships, and better career prospects over a century. However, recruiting and retaining these exceptional students -- the key to creating a successful honours programme -- becomes more challenging when the national college enrolment declines significantly every year. Hence…

Broadly defined, coaching is "a form of professional learning within the classroom or school that helps [educators] develop and apply new knowledge, make strong plans for instruction and assessment, obtain feedback, refine their practices, and examine results" (The University of Florida Lastinger Center for Learning, Learning Forward,…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created disruptions in the teacher workforce, including reductions-in-force due to budget cuts, hesitation from teachers to return in-person to the classroom, and relaxed standards for entering the profession. Even before the current pandemic, teacher hiring decisions were often late, rushed, and information-poor.…

This book explores the holistic development of vocational education in Chinese education system. It investigates the vocational education policy development, student development, allocation of teachers' resources, financial mechanism and system, students' financial aid, examination and enrollment, private vocational education system, and…

One-on-one and program-based special education paraprofessionals are often used to support students with disabilities across school settings. While paraprofessionals may have the best of intentions, their proximity and the support they provide may prevent students with disabilities from fully accessing educational and social opportunities. To…

Most students seeking to enroll in community college are required to take a placement test for math and English courses. Administrators are well aware of the shortcomings of using traditional placement tests alone, and state and college systems across the country are organizing multiple measures assessment (MMA) placement systems that will…

Published annually since 1985, the Handbook series provides a compendium of thorough and integrative literature reviews on a diverse array of topics of interest to the higher education scholarly and policy communities. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of research findings on a selected topic, critiques the research literature in terms…

Student ratings are not leaving today or anytime soon. However, as the title of this article indicates, student ratings are not the only option to provide evidence in the evaluation of teaching. There is a broad range of alternatives to consider beyond student ratings in the delicate decision-making processes to improve teaching and determine the…

This document presents issues that should be considered before student test results are used in evaluations of teacher performance. As the stakes attached to student test results have increased, so has the need for educators to make informed decisions about the types of tests used to generate data for these purposes and the way student test…

This document provides guidance to district administrators, principals, teachers, and other staff who work with children and youth on how to select and organize school-based out-of-school time programs aimed at improving academic achievement.

The National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) 2016 "Landscape in Teacher Preparation" has examined 875 traditional undergraduate programs that prepare elementary school teachers, finding widely variable levels of quality. Some programs prepare teachers whom parents would love to see in front of their child's classroom. Too many…

Successful colleges require effective leadership and governance. Effective governing boards are comprised of trustees who are committed to excellence in performing their duties. How do governing boards assure they are effective? One way is through ongoing board and trustee education and development, to provide the skills necessary to govern well.…

Homeless children and youth experience many challenges in enrolling and attending school and achieving educational success. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (reauthorized under Title X, Part C of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and subsequently referred to as the McKinney-Vento Act in this brief) ensures rights and services for…

This tool is a simplified version of the evaluation framework developed by Wenger, Trayner, and de Laat (2011), building upon Kirkpatrick (1976, 1994). These internationally recognized experts on professional learning and collaboration developed their value creation framework to address the dual challenges of attending to the diversity of types of…