The Grantmakers for Education (GFE) Institute attracted more than 60 grantmakers from national, corporate, community and family foundations, with interests in systems and programs from early learning through postsecondary completion. And while attendees arrived with diverse experiences and expertise in grantmaking to support policy change, they…

The paper begins by identifying issues as to how initial teacher training and in-service training for teachers inadequately prepares them for teaching the pupils with special educational needs (SEN). The paper then provides a brief legislative background to SEN in the Northern Ireland context, before describing two elements of educational reform…

Data suggest that teachers lack confidence in teaching English language learners (ELLs). Teachers' perceived shortcomings have been identified but little is known about why these perceptions exist or how they might be associated with broader measures of efficacy. We surveyed 578 Californian teachers of ELLs to explore the relations among teachers'…

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has set out to expand existing partnerships and form new alliances in order to take on the most pervasive challenges of our time: improving the health and well-being of everyone in America. It has formalized its commitment by bringing together its work under the thematic efforts of "Healthy Children,…

In this paper we report on a whole school literacy research project, Embedding Literacies in the KLA's (ELK). The starting point for this endeavour is the theory of knowledge development conceptualised within the sociology of education as the semantic wave (Maton, forthcoming). As discipline knowledge typically resides in the "high…

Discusses the strategic management of knowledge assets for competitive advantage in enterprises. Presents an integrative, systematic approach that can be followed in order to improve the business value of the knowledge assets of an enterprise. (Author/AEF)

In our session, we showcase work from a researcher-practitioner partnership between James Madison University, the University of Virginia, and Harrisonburg City Public Schools that is focused on developing a continuous improvement process to translate social-psychological interventions into teaching practices that enhance motivation and learning.…

A significant proportion of students enrolling in mathematical subjects designed for non-STEM majors in university courses have minimal mathematical skills and poor motivation. This combination of starting attributes often leads to failure in the first mathematical subject encountered. We have been implementing simple, alternative pedagogies in an…

On July 24 and 25, 2012, members of the Task Force on Admissions in the 21st Century gathered in Reston, Virginia, to discuss the progress made by the implementation team in addressing action items from the Task Force's Preserving the Dream of America 2008 report; the current environment for admission; and actions to be taken to further the task…

In 1984 the State of New York mandated participation in the Comprehensive School Improvement Program (CSIP) for elementary schools that ranked in the bottom 9 percent on statewide student competency exams. To discern the overall effectiveness of the program and identify why it appeared to succeed in some schools and fail in others, the changes in…

The College Assessment for Learning Program (CALP) was initiated in order to improve student learning outcomes and to strengthen professional conversations across three campuses. It was based on a backward mapping process developed earlier at one of the junior campuses with successful outcomes. Analysis of NAPLAN, School Certificate and Higher…

Communities of practice as organisations of learning have developed different forms as: task-based, practice-based or knowledge based communities (Barab et al., 2004). The paper presents a case study of a successful community of practice developed under the umbrella of Council of Europe Pestalozzi programme for teacher development. The programme…

The effectiveness of instructional development evaluation programs is assessed. It is suggested that although it is a basic tenet in instructional development that teaching improvement is closely linked to effective evaluation, it is ironical that most instructional development programs have themselves been evaluated only superficially, if at all.…

Building Assets Reducing Risks (BARR) is a social emotional model that achieves academic outcomes through combining use of real-time student data with proven relationship-building strategies and intensive teacher collaboration to prevent course failure. BARR is a recipient of US Department of Education "Investing in Innovation (i3)"…

This paper: (1) discusses why science and mathematics education are important; (2) outlines why a comprehensive improvement program is necessary; and (3) describes how North Carolina is attempting to improve science and mathematics education as related to teacher supply and quality, student enrollment and performance, curriculum and instructional…