When observing and consistently hearing about the obstacles our current public educational system faces, many are left wondering what can be done to produce genuine, significant, and continuous improvement. Upon deeper analysis of educational systems, one can see that many areas need system improvement. SOAR School (pseudonym) is a Pre-K-5 school…

This phenomenological study examined 11 Title I early childhood educators' perceptions of Black male students' reading development related to the availability and representation of Black male protagonists in classroom library picture books in upstate South Carolina. From the perspective of two reading coaches and nine early childhood classroom…

Drawing on the work of Paulo Freire, Morrell argues for critical, humanizing inquiry spaces in which literacy teachers learn with and from one another. However, he points to critical race theory and poses important questions, for example, wondering whether empowered spaces for teachers are transferred into empowerment for students.

Cahnmann-Taylor draws on Boalian Theatre of the Oppressed to offer a practice for literacy teachers and coaches that can open up multiple perspectives and multiple levels of intentions and motivations for a teacher's decision making. She challenges coaches and teachers to engage in artistic examinations of multiplicity to move toward performing…

Documents the attempts of the Legislative Committee of the South Carolina State Council of the International Reading Association to influence minimal competency testing legislation. (MKM)

For five years running, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has tracked states' teacher policies, preparing a detailed and thorough compendium of teacher policy in the United States on topics related to teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal. The "2011 State…

Describes South Carolina's Governor's Remediation Initiative (GRI), an instructional management system that links diagnostic tests and teaching modules for use by high school mathematics and reading laboratories. (TW)