Concerns about the rising cost of college and growing student loan debt have intensified in recent years, with 85% of non-enrolled adults citing affordability as a key barrier (Gallup & Lumina Foundation, 2024) and a third of currently enrolled college students agreeing that their "institution charges too much for an undergraduate…

Iowa State University (ISU) is a public, four-year university in Eastern Iowa. About one-third of full-time faculty at ISU are in VITAL roles, positions they refer to as term faculty. Term faculty have promotion line opportunities that mirror tenure-line faculty; across five specialized roles (teaching, practice, clinical, research, and adjunct),…

Increasingly, people are looking for education and training options that are more affordable, flexible, can quickly open doors to good jobs, and--ideally--pave the way for further educational attainment. Businesses also want to hire workers with the skills needed for jobs in growing industries. Non-degree credentials (NDCs) can often meet these…

Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) offer parents a publicly funded, government-authorized savings account they can draw on for certain K-12 educational expenses. As these programs have expanded in recent years, they have become a flashpoint in education policy debates. For some, ESAs are an extension of existing private school choice programs'…

Social studies instructional time in elementary schools has declined substantially. Responding to this, the National Geographic Society (NGS) developed a professional learning program called the Elementary Social Studies Community of Practice (ESSCoP). This article describes this program's design and content, as well as evaluates its…

Teacher educators face the perpetual challenge of providing pre-service teachers with the most pertinent pedagogical and content-related knowledge and skills to ensure their success in the field of education. Using a modified version of a Borich needs assessment instrument, we assessed the agricultural education training needs of agricultural…

This mixed-methods study investigates the attitudes of middle and high school World Language (WL) teachers in Iowa regarding teaching students with disabilities (SWDs) as well as factors that relate to these attitudes. The study uses data from surveys of 41 Iowa WL teachers and semistructured interviews with eight. Survey data were analyzed using…

This study investigated the prevalence of increasingly popular animal-assisted stress relief programs at higher education institutions across the United States. Although research on animal-assisted programs is increasing, there is still a lack of information documenting implementation of these programs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to…