In 1978, the University of Phoenix was among the first for-profit universities to receive accreditation from a prestigious regional agency: the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Its accreditation marked a turning point in broader acceptance for the for-profit model in higher education and gave the…

Processing Strengths and Weaknesses (PSW) models have been proposed as a method for identifying specific learning disabilities. Three PSW models were examined for their ability to predict expert identified specific learning disabilities cases. The Dual Discrepancy/Consistency Model (DD/C; Flanagan, Ortiz, & Alfonso, 2013) as operationalized by…

As states continue to grapple with the most appropriate ways to hold schools accountable under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), there is a lack of consensus on how alternative settings should fit into accountability systems and whether those systems should be separate from or included in accountability systems for traditional schools. The…

Discussion of alternative education is growing across the country as states and districts look for ways to better serve students whose needs are not met in traditional high school settings. Alternative settings, however, vary greatly in how they operate, whom they aim to enroll, and the methods they use to educate students. The variation of…

While education research has explored the role of the principal in the advent of No Child Left Behind (2001), quantitative and qualitative studies fail to describe and explain the ways in which principals' leadership practices are shaped by their conditions. These conditions include the school culture and climate in which they work; their own…

Much has been published about developing a cybersecurity curriculum for institutes of higher learning (IHL). Now that a growing number of IHLs globally offer such programs, a need exists on how to guide, maintain, and improve the relevancy of existing curricula. Just as cybersecurity professionals must be hone their skills continually to keep with…

Students attending a University-Model® school participate in a hybrid approach to education which combines homeschooling with private education. This allows parents a primary role in their child(ren)'s education with the guidance of licensed teachers. The question of how students' academic needs are addressed in this model remains unexplored. This…

Background/Context: Blended learning--a learning model in which online learning is combined with faceto- face instruction to provide a more personalized learning experience for students--has shown enormous growth in recent years. Though many policymakers and educators are optimistic about the potential of blended learning to provide the type of…

This qualitative case study explored how a novice language teacher negotiated her pedagogical beliefs and practices during her socialization into a foreign cultural and educational context. The focal participant was an Uzbek language teacher at a university in the USA. Using a language socialization theoretical framework, data were drawn from…

There has been a sea change in teacher evaluation over the past eight years. Inspired in part by President Barack Obama's policies, schools have instituted teacher evaluation systems that include multiple measures of teacher impact. Model systems are aligned to systems of continuous improvement, helping teachers identify areas of weakness in their…

This paper is a research dissertation based on a qualitative case study conducted on Teachers' Experiences within a Data-Driven Decision Making (DDDM) process. The study site was a Title I elementary school in a large school district in Central Florida. Background information is given in relation to the need for research that was conducted on the…

Over the last several hundred years, local and national educational systems have evolved from relatively simple systems to incredibly complex, interdependent, policy-laden structures, to which many question their value, effectiveness, and direction they are headed. System Dynamics is a field of analysis used to guide policy and system design in…

Through a case study that highlights the role of rulemaking in the evolution of the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB), this article provides strategies for educators who seek both to influence policy outcomes and to understand the dynamics of policymaking. This study examines the regulatory processes for NCLB, specifically related to the…

In education, professional development (PD) is the continuing education of teachers and administrators. Many studies have described PD as a conventional, top-down type of training that teachers experience in schools. Commonly known as the "institutional model," this type of PD is isolated from classroom practice and occurs as mandatory…

Since "A Nation At Risk" (1954), a series of laws and key reform initiatives were passed to hold schools accountable for improving the quality of public education (e.g. "IASA," "Title 1," "NCLB," "RTTT"). These reform initiatives require that public schools undergo continuous change but simply…