Prospective longitudinal data collection is an important way for researchers and evaluators to assess change. In school-based settings, for low-risk and/or likely-beneficial interventions or surveys, data quality and ethical standards are both arguably stronger when using a waiver of parental consent--but doing so often requires the use of…

Although the study of place in the fields of composition and education has a long and compelling history, the concept has taken on increased importance in today's digital landscape. As perceptions of places shift, we're challenged to understand how and which places shape who we are. Due to its potential power to leverage student choice,…

The experience of pleasant and unpleasant emotions in academic situations is known to affect students' learning. The aim of the present study was to extend previous research by examining the antecedents and consequences of student emotions in the homework context. Multilevel analyses of a longitudinal dataset containing 3483 grade 9 and grade 10…

To many, it seems obvious which schools are failing--schools whose students perform poorly on achievement tests. But since evaluating schools on achievement mixes the effects of school and nonschool influences, achievement-based evaluation likely underestimates the effectiveness of schools that serve disadvantaged populations. In this article, the…

In this paper we analyze the impact of classroom peers on individual student performance with a unique longitudinal data set covering all Florida public school students in grades 3-10 over a five-year period. Unlike many previous data sets used to study peer effects in education, our data set allow us to identify each member of a given student's…

This essay is the author's battle cry for help in revitalizing democracy. It deals with the institutions in which the future citizens are being educated. It deals with the undemocratic way in which schools are run. Given the time and space, the author would like to narrow the focus of his battle even further and argue for a revitalization of…

In the "PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) 2006 Encyclopedia," each participating country, 39 in total, describes its education system and the reading curriculum as it is intended to be taught, and outlines the polices and practices that guide reading instruction and teacher education. This in-depth, qualitative…