This case study explores the implementation of personalized learning at an elementary school in Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District 35. The study, conducted by Research for Action and funded by KnowledgeWorks, sheds light on the shift towards personalized, competency-based learning practices within the district. Through qualitative sources…

In elementary and middle schools in China, core subject teachers serve as homeroom teachers in most classes. Nevertheless, some schools are beginning to try to use non-core subject teachers as homeroom teachers. A series of disputes have arisen over the non-core subject teacher serving as the homeroom teacher. Based on defining the concepts of the…

Schools develop mission statements in part to communicate their purposes of schooling to internal and external audiences. The goal of this study is to employ text analytic techniques to analyze school mission statements. Focusing on Arizona and New Jersey's schools, we seek to understand: 1) what themes (topics) emerge from their mission…

Purpose: The Santa Ana Unified School District received an i3 grant (Investing in Innovation; funded by the U.S. Department of Education Grant number U411C160074) to build on their existing school climate practices. Called the Enhanced Positive School Climate Model, the aim is to improve school climate, student-adult relationships, create social…

This article presents analyses of curricula in religious education (RE) for public schools in Austria, Scotland, and Sweden. A curricula is the plan that outlines the goals, content and outcomes in education. A critical discourse analysis approach (CDA) is used to explore how each national RE curricula constructs (a) the aims, status and purpose…

This article sketches a vision of how primary education needs to be re-shaped to let schools focus more sharply on the development of children as individuals. Rapid social change requires a fundamental re-thinking of formal education and assessment. High-stakes testing must end. Greater weight must be given to the application of knowledge and…

Studies of individual environmental education (EE) field trip programs have found that pre-visit preparation and post-visit follow-up activities can enhance desired student outcomes. We examined these relationships across a broad sample of single-day EE field trip programs for adolescent youth (grades 5-8) across the United States. We measured…

This research aims to compare the social studies curricula of Thailand and New York State, USA, analyze their similarities and differences, and propose guidelines for improving the Thai social studies curriculum. The study employed a qualitative research methodology, using documentary analysis of the Thai Basic Education Core Curriculum B.E. 2551…

Principal educators' and policy makers' predominant expectation from school principals to serve as instructional leaders--who engage primarily in a wide range of activities that clearly focus on improving teaching and learning for all students--has scarcely been applied in practice by principals in today's schools. Researchers have found several…

This article investigates how learning outcomes, a concept inspired by an Anglo-Saxon curriculum approach, are expressed in policy documents, with an emphasis on expectations articulated to teachers. Developments in education policy for the last two decades reflect a widespread expansion of learning outcome orientation in curricula and assessment…

Discover the teaching practices that make the biggest difference in student performance! The new edition of this practical, research-based book gives leaders and teachers an even closer look at instructional practices from top award-winning urban schools. With refreshed examples from high-performing teachers and detailed analyses of these…

Preferences for teaching methods are influenced by several factors, including instructional goals, teacher's management style, experience and education. To discover in which ways primary school teachers with different management styles vary in their preferences for students' cognitive and social development, 128 teachers of Estonia were…

In so far as education has acknowledged creativity at all, it has commonly focused on "allowing" rather than "developing" creativity, on arts-based "expression" rather than broader or deeper kinds of creativity; and on the role of techniques rather than dispositions. This paper seeks to redress the balance by arguing…