Purpose: The purpose of this article is to analyze educational changes, in particular transformational changes, and suggest a new approach to shift the paradigm in education using an ecological conceptual framework. Design/Approach/Methods: An ecological analysis of two key factors in education: prescribed curriculum and student autonomy.…

Formal collaborative structures for teacher teams as professional learning communities (PLC) have long been a supported practice aimed at changing instructional practice and increasing student outcomes in a cycle of continuous improvement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of PLC teams at the middle school level in a…

This qualitative study is aimed at examining middle school principals' opinions on the factors associated with bullying in their schools, the strategies that principals take to tackle bullying in their schools, and the issues that they are faced while dealing with bullying their schools. The study group was consisted of 20 voluntary middle school…

Teen dating violence (TDV) is a significant public health problem that can have lifelong consequences. Using a longitudinal, cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT), this study examines whether the "Dating Matters" comprehensive prevention model, implemented in middle school, prevented TDV and negative relationship behaviors and…

Educators in the United States have become increasingly concerned about students who are suspended out of school because they miss classroom instruction and are then less likely to graduate. The problem addressed in this study was that school administrators continued to use exclusionary practices for discipline negating more culturally responsive…

Background: Researchers regularly must decide what information is necessary to understand school climate and how to include climate in a study. For example, which factors and/or scales should be used, is using just 1 scale for school climate sufficient, and to what extent does the selection of a single scale influence the research findings? Aims:…

Background: Researchers regularly must decide what information is necessary to understand school climate and how to include climate in a study. For example, which factors and/or scales should be used, is using just 1 scale for school climate sufficient, and to what extent does the selection of a single scale influence the research findings? Aims:…

School improvement depends, fundamentally, upon collective agency--a group capability to work productively together and solve problems. Unfortunately, many schools operate in contexts of adversity that can pose considerable challenges with developing collective agency. Schools serving high-poverty communities of color often face chronic resource…

Purpose: School-university partnerships are important in teacher education to ensure PK-12 preservice teachers gain teaching experience prior to becoming teachers of record. Drawing on Ball and Cohen's (1999) concept of "practice-based teacher education," this three-year qualitative study examines the results of an intentionally…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how public middle school administrators described the special education training they received to engage in social justice leadership to support, lead, and enable successful outcomes of special education programs in their school. The theoretical foundation utilized was the social…

In the dynamic realm of virtual education, the successful execution of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) becomes essential for promoting student achievement. This study examines a particular aspect of this educational framework, explicitly investigating the teachers' perceptions of the fidelity of implementing an MTSS framework within an…

This study investigated the role of administrative support in the correlation between teachers' perceptions of organizational support and their levels of leadership. This study adopts a relational screening model. The study population consisted of teachers in elementary, middle, and high schools. The sample consisted of 304 teachers selected…

Education at all levels is being transformed, impacting teaching methods, materials, and the physical learning environment. Over recent years, efforts have been made to align school architecture with contemporary educational practices to create stimulating and responsive teaching and learning environments. In this context, Evidence-Based Design…

Despite the many contributions of nonhuman animals in history, nonhuman animal representations are seldom crafted with care and accuracy in curricular texts. Because of the anthropocentric vantage point of textbook creation, the nonhuman animal is often portrayed as an object, but as our relationship with the nonhuman world continues to…

The role of computation in science is ever-expanding and is enabling scientists to investigate complex phenomena in more powerful ways and tackle previously intractable problems. The growing role of computation has prompted calls to integrate computational thinking (CT) into science instruction in order to more authentically mirror contemporary…