As the 21st century progresses, the role of the building-level school administrator has become more and more complex. With the demands of the No Child Left Behind Act, changing demographics, instructional leadership, and state accountability systems, the need for principals to feel a sense of efficacy toward their jobs is critical. There is a body…

As a critical step in understanding the impacts of IB, the analyses presented in this report examined the selection mechanisms behind IB participation across Florida, the state with the second highest representation of IB programs in the nation. We use longitudinal student and school-level data from 1995 through 2009 from the Florida K-20…

The purpose of this study was to identify variables that influenced first-year retention at a small, private, and Midwestern liberal arts college. A survey was administered to first-year students; factor analysis of the data produced variables representing academic and social integration as well as perceptions of institutional support. Regression…

Based on current research and seminal theories on learning, quality, and academic persistence, this study sought to establish the core components of academic quality in higher education and to determine if these components can be used to predict students' intention to persist. This study also looked at differences between traditionally aged…

Consistent with the dictum, "the personal is political," feminist scholars have maintained that gender equity in security, access to education, economic opportunity, and property ownership are central to women's well-being. Empirical research evaluating this thesis can include nation-level indicators of gender equity, such as the United Nation…

The aim of the study is to determine the status of Turkey among OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) members and candidate countries through cluster and discriminant analyses according to PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2009 results. The study includes 475460 fifteen year-old students from 65…

One of the main variables affecting the level of human capital positively is the improvements in health. The reduction in infant and under-five mortality rates and increase in life expectancy at birth are the basic indicators of improvements in health. One of the major sources of improvements in these variables is education. Theoretical literature…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how secondary special education teachers are using technology for instruction. Scott's (1981) Rational Perspective served as the theoretical perspective for this study. A survey was used to gather data pertaining to how secondary special education teachers were using technology for instruction and…

The findings from 20 years of research on undergraduate education have been unequivocal: The more actively engaged students are--with college faculty and staff, with other students, and with the subject matter they study--the more likely they are to learn, to stick with their studies, and to attain their academic goals. The existing literature,…

Well over three million children, K-12, are estimated to have lost instructional "seat time" in 2009-2010 because they were suspended from school, often with no guarantee of adult supervision outside the school. That's about the number of children it would take to fill every seat in every major league baseball park and every NFL stadium…

For-profit colleges are some of the biggest critics of the federal graduation rate, arguing that it gives an inaccurate image of their institutions. They point out that the official calculation doesn't take into account the vast majority of the students who attend their institutions, most of whom are neither "first-time" nor "full-time." So major…

For 25 years, "Exchange" has been tracking developments in the for profit child care sector. With this report, CEOs of organizations in the Exchange Top 50 have been asked to reflect on what have been the most significant developments in this sector over these 25 years. This article shares what they said.

In this paper, we investigate the effects of competition on the performance of Italian secondary schools as measured by maths achievement scores (PISA 2006 dataset). Competition is measured by an indicator of "perceived" competition (generated from an answer provided by the schools' principals). The methodology employed is a propensity…

This article, updated and expanded from one written for "The Times Educational Supplement", 10 December 2010, asks whether politicians are right to quote the country's performance in international tests in support of such policies as re-introducing O levels. It finds reasons to doubt that the tests give an adequate picture of children's…

Prior research suggests that the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is having an adverse effect on school music programs, particularly in schools that have not made "adequate yearly progress." In many instances, music programs are being reduced or eliminated, music teachers are being required to assist with the teaching of other subjects,…