Teaching children with individualized education programs (IEPs) can pose challenges such as determining materials to use, managing the materials, and keeping data organized. This paper reviews those challenges that teachers (e.g., general and special education) encounter and describes the necessity for systematic data collection. Guidelines are…

At City Academies Neighborhood Middle School, there is a gap in student achievement. Over the course of two years, our lowest performing students did not grow at the rate of their peers. This problem has several consequences, including over classification of students with disabilities and a widening achievement gap. The purpose of my research was…

For investigating a comprehensive PLC framework, instruments are needed that capture the multi-layered PLC characteristics and that take into account the complex influencing educational context. Such instruments are currently lacking. This study aims at describing the development and validation of two qualitative classification instruments usable…

Action research is a cyclical research process that may be used to improve instructional practice, assessment tools, and student outcomes. Action research always focuses on local problems and takes place in the natural setting of a classroom, laboratory, or school. Unlike traditional research, action researchers are primarily "committed to…

In an effort provide access to devices and prepare students for the future, a small rural high school committed to becoming a high-tech school. However, data collected using the IPI-T process suggested teachers were typically the users of the technology, students were often disengaged, and teachers were asking students to participate in…

Reported percentages of young children who engage in challenging behavior is estimated between 10% and 20%. This percentage is even greater for children with disabilities. Not surprisingly, when young children with challenging behavior do not receive services and supports early on, they can experience negative social and emotional outcomes long…

We provide an overview of ways to involve undergraduate business and retailing students in faculty research projects and discuss advantages of these student-faculty collaborations. We use Kolb's experiential learning cycle to provide a framework for creating an effective and engaging undergraduate research experience and use it to classify types…

"Using Data for Continuous Improvement in Educator Preparation" provides case studies that illuminate and contextualize the ways in which educator preparation programs determine the data they need to improve, collect data, analyze data, share data with stakeholders, and close the loop by making focused improvements based on the data.…

This study examined the effects of John Kotter's Eight Steps for Successful Change framework and strategies in systems implementation in a secondary educational environment. Teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of Kotter's strategies used by their administrative team to support positive change were examined. The study evaluated data provided…

Equity is emerging as a new frontier in the student success movement. But it's not enough to tackle higher education's deep equity divides by looking only at markers such as persistence, transfer, course credits, and DWF grades. True equity accountability depends on clarity about the key components of a quality education, especially the kinds of…

National efforts to improve equitable teaching practices in biology education have led to an increase in research on the barriers to student participation and performance, as well as solutions for overcoming these barriers. Fewer studies have examined the extent to which the resulting data trends and effective strategies are generalizable across…

National testing and reform agendas, with their focus on school improvement, has led to increased collection and scrutiny of student data. The analysis of these data usually occurs at a school level, often by school leaders. What is less common is the opportunity for students to scrutinise their individual data and take ownership over the results…

The use of mobile devices is increasing rapidly as a potential tool for science teaching. In this study, five educators (three middle school teachers and two museum educators) used a mobile application that supported the development of a driving question. Previous studies have noted that teachers make little effort to connect learning experiences…

Teacher professional development (PD) that supports the emergence of professional learning communities (PLCs) is effective for teachers' learning and instructional improvement. Our work focuses on supporting the emergence of online PLCs and an emergent issue in this work is how to maintain the quality of teachers' experiences in online PLCs when…

We examine how teacher leaders (TLs), working in a low-income urban elementary school, supported their colleagues to learn how to collect quality formative data and to discuss it in collaborative conversations in order to make their students' learning visible. The TLs faced challenges reflecting consequences resulting from the district's high…