Late in 2007 New Visions for Public Schools, a New York City reform organization, received a grant from the C.S. Mott Foundation to organize select high schools and community partners into delivery systems that could improve student achievement. New Visions asked Policy Studies Associates, Inc. to provide research support for this effort in the…

In May 2008, the Center for Evaluation & Education Policy (CEEP) issued the Education Policy Brief, "Calculating High School Graduation Rates," which discussed the importance of accurate and reliable high school graduation data, various graduation rate calculation methods, the history behind the use of particular methodologies, and…

Teaching is successful only to the extent to which students are able to grasp it fully. In this age of science and technology, the process of teaching has reached new dimensions. Teaching is not a one sided affair. In the context of modern developments teaching is a tripolar process. The traditional teaching of 30 or 40 students is no longer…

Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences has provided educators with a new view of intelligence. It emphasizes that science, math and language are not the only ways to exhibit intelligence. People exhibit intelligence in many different ways. Each type of intelligence is as valuable as the others. Gardner classifies these intelligences…

This study discusses my attempt to improve educational experiences of fifth-grade students living in public housing. Through reconstruction of my thought processes while teaching and learning with students, the context of social justice-oriented teaching and classroom complexity is revealed. A narrative portrayal emerges demonstrating the impact…

This study explores seventh graders' use of inscriptions in a teacher-designed project-based science unit. To investigate students' learning practices during the 8-month water quality unit, we collected multiple sources of data (e.g., classroom video recordings, student artifacts, and teacher interviews) and employed analytical methods that drew…

As experts on the nature and needs of young children, early childhood educators are in prime positions to advocate for the health and well-being of young children. Advocacy can take the form of personal, public, or private-sector endeavors. Personal advocacy is usually informal and involves educating others on an issue about early childhood…

This paper focuses on one approach to making research students more reflexive in their writing. It is argued that the development of the ability to be reflexive in regard to their own qualitative research does not come easily to a significant number of students. A range of possibilities which supervisors might present to their research students as…

EQUALS is a teacher education program that helps elementary and secondary educators acquire methods and materials to attract minority and female students to mathematics. The EQUALS program supports a problem-solving approach to mathematics which has students working in groups, uses active assessment methods, and incorporates a broad mathematics…

From plans to rescue EuroDisney to blueprints for introducing the Intel chip, group projects in a public relations class can offer students invaluable lessons in real-world applications. This paper provides teachers of undergraduate, introductory classes in public relations with a primer on how to develop, supervise, and evaluate group projects in…

Teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) are responsible not only for teaching students about the rules of language, but also for encouraging the understanding of and empathy for those who are native and non-native speakers of the target language. Where there is cultural diversity, there is often intolerance, and Taiwan is no exception. A…

This document presents first-hand experiences of teachers and students using the Internet in K-12 math and science, as well as articles on getting the right hardware, choosing an Internet service provider, designing an online project, and fostering acceptable use. Chapters include: (1) "Something in the Air" (Linda Maston): a computer-assisted…

While it is generally accepted that people working in groups can accomplish more than people working individually, it is equally accepted that parasites will attempt to feed on the other group members. Group work has been called by several names--group learning, cooperative learning, collaborative learning--all of which carry slightly different…

The Collaboratory Notebook is a networked hypermedia database that allows students to collaborate on scientific inquiries across boundaries of time and space. Developed as part of the Learning Through Collaborative Visualization (CoVis) networking testbed, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, this software expands on the idea of…

Drawing upon the philosophy of several educational theorists and several educational approaches, this paper discusses the educational environment of Danish schools and preschools. Given the significant number of hours that children spend in schools, the importance of methods employed by the schools for the care and education of children is…