In the contemporary educational landscape, the significance of soft skills development, particularly in secondary education, garnered little attention. This study explored the critical role of soft skills, focusing on communication, feedback, collaboration, media literacy, and critical thinking in career and higher education. The central theme was…

Grading is one of the most hotly debated topics in education, and grading practices themselves are largely based on tradition, instinct, or personal history or philosophy. But to be effective, grading policies and practices must be based on trustworthy research evidence. Enter this book: a review of 100-plus years of grading research that presents…

The year 2020 was likely one of the most challenging ever for the higher education sector. The COVID-19 pandemic forced massive rapid changes, and faculty, administrators, and students all had to adjust to new ways of conducting their day-to-day operations. This project is the fourth in a series of snapshots examining the nature and magnitude of…

Although the vast majority of American parents believe their child is performing at or above grade level, in reality two-thirds of U.S. teenagers are ill-prepared for college when they leave high school. Why this enormous disconnect? Could it be that test scores signaling that kids are "less than proficient" don't register with parents…

The aim of the study is to design an effective instruction build on the Dick and Carey Model and game-based learning that enables an undiagnosed language learner of dyslexia, facing problems in vocabulary acquisition to acquire a pre-defined number of vocabularies in a given time. The method of the curriculum development study is based on a case…

California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) has committed to becoming Los Angeles' premier educational anchor institution, forging meaningful partnerships that contribute to the overall well-being of the region. Cal State LA ranks number one in the nation for the upward mobility of its students (Chetty, Friedman, Saez, Turner, &…

Grading refers to the symbols assigned to individual pieces of student work or to composite measures of student performance on report cards. This review of over 100 years of research on grading considers five types of studies: (a) early studies of the reliability of grades, (b) quantitative studies of the composition of K-12 report card grades,…

This article provides a historical interpretation of one of the defining features of modern schooling: grades. As a central element of schools, grades--their origins, uses and evolution--provide a window into the tensions at the heart of building a national public school system in the United States. We argue that grades began as an intimate…

Over the last decade, California leaders have made tremendous progress on supporting kids in some crucial areas. They have vastly increased the percentage of children enrolled in health insurance and made paid family leave available for most workers. They have also invested in free school meals, committed to universal transitional kindergarten,…

This study evaluated the efficacy of an intentionally brief school-based mentoring program. This academic goal-focused mentoring program was developed through a series of iterative randomized controlled trials, and is informed by research in social cognitive theory, cognitive dissonance theory, motivational interviewing, and research in academic…

Educators and experts alike have come to a growing realization that academic factors alone do not tell the whole story of what it means to successfully navigate the educational system through high school and into higher education or the workplace. This national report from "Education Week" investigates the role that student engagement…

This researcher examined the continuum of the Jones-Zimmermann Academic Mentoring Program (J-ZAMP) after its initial three years and its sustainability of the first cohort at the high school level. I addressed the academic mentoring program's long and short term goals by identifying the first cohort of mentees, their present status in high school,…

This report examines state policies and performance in the areas of enrollment and affordability. The authors' goal was to better understand the Utah's generally good performance in "Measuring Up 2004: The National Report Card on Higher Education." Utah's historically strong performance, especially in terms of providing affordable higher…

The papers contained in this document represent the keynote addresses, refereed and non-refereed conference papers from the 21st National Conference of the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA). The theme for this national annual conference was: Our Stories: Innovation and Excellence in Rural Education. Keynote…