Social reading can broadly be described as the experience surrounding the reading of electronic books, more commonly known as eBooks. Utilising eTextbooks and social reading at a university offers some powerful potential to engage students and help them succeed in their studies. A broad overview of the current landscape and recent initiatives…

Technology and social media, often seen as counter productive to student learning, can provide intriguing new ways to extend and enhance learning across international borders. This article explores one successful learning project, based on the Nobel Peace Prize, that connected students from Norway, South Africa, and the United States through…

Education programs across 19 states are piloting a performance-based assessment for teacher-candidates that potentially could serve as a common prelicensing measure for new teachers. Based on a test in use in about 30 education schools in California, the Teacher Performance Assessment includes a "teaching event" requiring teachers to…

In the fall of 2008, a coalition of Minnesota foundations commissioned a local research organization to assess the state's ability to undertake a major improvement in school readiness and early learning services for disadvantaged children. The findings were discouraging. Richard Chase, working at the research arm of St. Paul's Amherst H. Wilder…

This article presents integrated multicultural instructional design (IMID), a new pedagogical model that is responsive to the growing student diversity in postsecondary institutions in the U.S. and throughout the world. This work builds on previous research articles in the "Journal of College Reading and Learning" related to assessing…

A new Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) approach was designed for youth who participated in the Minnesota State Fair Livestock interview process. The project and evaluation were designed to determine if the new SET approach increased content knowledge and science process skills in participants. Results revealed that youth participants not…

The report details Minnesota's early childhood education (ECE) activities from 2003 to the present, with a particular focus on the role of the business community. Although the report illustrates how fact-based information, partnered with dedicated and well-connected people and organized task forces, creates change, there remain components of…

Despite promising research findings and enthusiastic participants, multiyear teacher/student relationships remain uncommon in U.S. schools. The multiyear approach offers great potential for summertime learning. Ambitious pilot programs in Attleboro and Worcester, Massachusetts, and West Bloomfield, Minnesota, are briefly described. (MLH)

The mission of the Rum River (Minnesota) Special Education Cooperative is to help local school district staff integrate students with challenges in regular education settings. Currently, almost all children attend a home school in their local communities. The expanded opportunities in regular classrooms have raised disabled students' expectations…

Collaboration among various professional groups to enhance student learning is a very useful strategy. This article describes how one state, Minnesota, over time (1960-1990), employed collaboration among schools, universities, professional organizations, and the State Department of Education to affect student counseling practices where needed.…

Most people would probably agree that participation in quality youth programs and neighborhood-based, informal relationships and opportunities is a good thing for young people. The problem is that not nearly enough children and youth are engaged in these growth-enhancing opportunities. What can educators learn from young people about designing…

This report of the Council on Quality Education to the 1981 Minnesota Legislature containing data current through fiscal 1980, discusses policy issues related to early childhood and family education within the state. The report's eight chapters describe the following: (1) nine revised policy recommendations; (2) the conceptualization and…

This report presents a study of policy issues related to the provision of early childhood and family education services in Minnesota. Chapter One consists of an executive summary and recommendations. Chapters Two and Three overview the concept, rationale and implementation of Minnesota's early childhood and family education pilot programs.…

Words Work! is an approach to improving literacy outcomes for children through teacher development and parent engagement. In this article the authors describe the pilot phase of the project. The staff at Words Work! created an assessment system that aligns curriculum with assessment and collection of student data and teacher planning. Teachers use…

Research was conducted that initially focused on identifying and synthesizing the large number of previously identified vocational special needs teacher competencies into an educational model. The model contained a matrix that organized all these competencies into twelve domains of four performance phases each. The Competency Matrix was the…