For students to learn, they must be present and engaged in school. As a result, absenteeism is a concern for all schools. Poor attendance is associated with a host of negative short- and long-term outcomes, such as academic failure, disengagement, leaving school, and problem behaviors in school and community. Despite the challenges, evidence…

In the current context, barriers to student attendance and engagement have only increased. Schools and districts are encouraged to emphasize a supportive multi-tiered model for supporting student and staff engagement and attendance rather than punitive attendance or truancy policies. Leadership teams will need to be aware of and adjust policy and…

This paper discusses some of the major concerns associated with the instructional process of our homeless children. The reader is provided with a brief overview of the prevalence of this population. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness the number of school children who are homeless is growing rapidly with 1.4 to 1.5 million…

Three years ago, the authors accepted positions as high school principals in Buffalo City (NY) Schools after serving as elementary school principals in the district for many years. In their new positions, they were to lead schools that were designated by the New York State Department of Education as "persistently lowest achieving,"…

This instructional paper is intended to provide an alternative approach to developing lecture materials, including handouts and PowerPoint slides, successfully developed over several years. The principal objective is to aid in the bridging of traditional "chalk and talk" lecture approaches with more active learning techniques, especially in more…

A traditional physical science course was transformed into an environmental physical science course to teach physics to non-science majors. The objective of the new course was to improve the learning of basic physics principles by applying them to current issues of interest. A new curriculum was developed with new labs, homework assignments,…

Face-to-face library instruction sessions for academic courses usually have a captive audience because of required attendance, while online sessions for distance learners are often optional. Is it possible to provide such a great online learning encounter that students (both on campus and distance) will choose to attend even an optional session?…

This brochure provides answers to the following questions: (1) Why do school districts, schools, teachers, parents, and communities need to plan for the continuation of learning for students during flu season this year? (2) How should districts and schools go about planning to continue students' education when they are at home because of H1N1?…

TURF 436 (Case Studies in Turfgrass Management) is the capstone course for turfgrass science majors at the Pennsylvania State University. Students are introduced to problems and complex problematic situations encountered in the management of golf and sports turf and in professional lawn-care operations. Following completion of the orientation case…

Growing concern about the quality of public education in the United States has driven numerous educational reform efforts across the last three decades. These reforms include increased accountability as exemplified by various requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the introduction of new curriculum and instructional methods in…

A study was conducted at Bunker Hill Community College to assess the impact of the use of learning groups on student absenteeism and academic performance. The study involved four sections of a Biology 1 class. Two sections were designated as the control group and were taught using the traditional course format, which involved a 2-hour session in…

Since the publication of Dr. E. A. Fay's article on the Progress of Education of the deaf in the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1913 the number of public residential schools has not increased remaining at 64. The number of pupils however, has risen in this time from 10,837 to 11,103, the former number being 82 per cent of the pupils…

A long continuing responsibility of the Office of Education is the publication of bulletins describing education in other countries. Such bulletins are a vital part of a program to increase American understanding of education around the world. They include a growing series of studies on education in the Latin American Republics. "Education in…