Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) is an educational framework that illustrates how to foster educational excellence through a focus on cultural competence, critical consciousness, and academic success, which aims to empower students by making education more applicable and responsive to their lived experiences (Ladson-Billings, 1995). This study…

Induction programmes including assessments of suitability were introduced in Sweden 2011 and were in use for three years. The purpose of this study is to examine the conditions for and the consequences of giving the induction programme a gatekeeper function to the teaching profession. The empirical basis consists of a web-based survey, which…

Foundations across the country engage in grantmaking to eliminate the opportunity and achievement gaps in K-12 public schools. Many of the strategies and investments that funders have supported in recent years focus not only on "more time" but also on "better use of time" in schools. This better use of time centers on outcomes…

Eight years ago, the editors of this special issue published another special issue focused on the topic of response to intervention (RtI; Vaughn & Fuchs, 2003). At that time, there was considerable interest in the application of an RtI model for providing services to children at risk for learning disabilities. The potential benefits have led to…

With decentralisation becoming increasingly widespread across Europe, evaluation and accountability are becoming key issues in ensuring quality provision for all (Altrichter & Maag Merki, 2010; Eurydice, 2004). In Europe, the dominant arrangement for educational accountability is school inspections. The purpose of this research is to identify…

On September 17, 2013 (Constitution Day), the C3 Framework was released under the title "The College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History." The C3 Project Director and lead writer was NCSS member Kathy Swan, who is…

The emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is resulting in more opportunities for scientists and teachers to collaborate. The relationships can result in failed collaborations or success. We recently completed a 6-year regional project that used several approaches to develop scientist-teacher relationships.…

This is the second in a series of six papers from the Center on Education Policy exploring issues related to students' motivation to learn. As noted in the first paper of this series, motivation to learn is one of the most important factors in a student's educational journey, but a robust discussion about students' motivation may be the "missing…

Since the first Circle of Trust retreat was offered in 2005, the Center for Courage & Renewal (CCR) and other individual facilitators across the United States, Canada, and Australia have continued to offer many cross-professional retreats, as they have proven extremely popular. They are designed for people from any profession who want to…

A growing number of countries are introducing qualification frameworks (QFs) following a common definition of outcomes, level descriptors, and a set of occupational or knowledge fields. Botswana has been no exception to this trend. The passing of the Vocational Training Act (1998) led to the creation of the Botswana National Vocational…

A qualitative research project was carried out in order to explore the views of Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) and mainstream school staff regarding the process of re-integration of secondary school age pupils from the PRU to mainstream school. The views of 11 PRU staff members, six mainstream staff members and a member of the Behaviour Support Service…

This article reports the findings from a case study of urban school district effectiveness taken from a larger, multistate study. The case study district, Galena Park Independent School District in Galena Park, Texas, was chosen for inclusion in the study based on quantitative analysis of student achievement data in Texas. An education production…

This is a case study of the implementation of state STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) policy over the period of the first 18 months of building a regional STEM partnership. Fullan's change theory is the framework used to determine progress and associated challenges with building a regional STEM educational partnership and…

What is transformative professional development for educators? Ideally, teachers and school leaders are given multiple opportunities to revisit schemas about themselves and their learning communities, with the intent to transform practice, the school environment, and even themselves. In practice, three cohorts of teachers and school leaders…

This report describes the final evaluation of a condensed work schedule, the Summer 2009 4-Day Work Week (S4-DWW), adopted by The School Board of Broward County, Florida. The goal for the program was to close the entire district for 1 day each week to reduce utility costs. Except for a few cases, district schools and offices were closed on Fridays…