Perhaps more than most academic issues, remedial education evokes fervent emotions and unyielding opinions. Consensus is hard to reach even about the nomenclature, with remedial conveying a sense of deficiency in need of correction pitted against the developmental approach that focuses on change and growth. On campus, the many aspects of the…

This article features the Challenge School, a magnet school in the CherryCreek School District in Colorado that focuses on academically advanced, motivated, and gifted students. The school was developed as an alternative to best meet the needs of these students. The Challenge School focuses on high student achievement and commensurate academic…

Online education holds great potential for rural states like South Dakota, which has been recognized for advances in distance education. To maximize the potential of online learning, design elements that students believe are needed for successful online learning experiences must be identified. In this study, we present the qualitative and…

In a study to evaluate the drug treatment and aftercare efforts sponsored by the State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau, residential Therapeutic Community (TC) treatment programs in four European countries-Poland, Spain, Slovenia, and Italy-were examined to identify promising practices and to assess lessons…

This article explores the appropriateness and implications of adopting and adapting the business-oriented concept of "best practice" in international schools. Because businesses and international schools tend to have contrasting goals and time-frames within which they seek to achieve their objectives, it is expected that "best practice" in schools…

This article will draw on an investigation of teachers' research in a small-scale project involving 19 schools in the North West region of England. The teachers engaged in the research were funded by a government initiative, the Best Practice Research Scholarships Programme, and were mentored and tutored by university staff. The sample is very…

This paper presents the main results of a comparative study carried out by a French-Japanese research team. Its focus is the daily life of under-ones in day care centres in two cultural contexts--France and Japan. Based on three kinds of data--official texts, videotaped observations and caregivers' discourses--the study highlights the links…

Previous research has indicated that engineering faculty do not follow best practices when commenting on students' technical writing. However, it is unclear whether the faculty prefer to comment in these ineffective ways, or whether they prefer more effective practices but simply do not enact them. This study adapts a well known study of response…

Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) are established to promote teaching excellence. While CTLs are effective at fostering teaching excellence in the main, they have provided little attention to addressing potentially unique needs of STEM faculty. This article proffers explanations as to why CTLs do not focus on promoting STEM pedagogies and…

Most of the time, technology in the classroom is a "we" or "they" issue: On one side are the people who deploy and operate the systems, on the other, the academics and staffers who use them. But, typically, on both sides, everyone is so busy trying to prepare for the next class or the next term that there's little opportunity…

A good number of scholars have recently addressed concerns about the disconnect between higher education and K-12 practice. According to Goldring and Sims (2005), those involved with leadership preparation must connect thought to action. Although many have taken the position that collaboration is essential, it has been much more difficult to…

The transition from high school to adult life is an exciting time for many young people. Youth from high poverty backgrounds, however, are considered at-risk for a host of unfavorable outcomes including academic failure, school dropout, drug abuse, unemployment and incarceration. These adolescents are more likely than their more affluent peers to…

Exposure to lead can be devastating for children, and federal regulations established in 2001 are forcing local governments to mitigate this risk. This essay discusses the creation of the Lead Alliance, a university-community coalition created to address lead hazards facing children from low-income households in South Bend, Indiana. Among the…

Supervision is an activity that, when effective, contributes significantly to service delivery and the ongoing learning and development of staff. Conversely, an organisation dedicating considerable time to an activity that is not benefiting practitioners and clients actually detracts from direct service provision. A national supervision project…

This study examined the teaching of controversial public issues (CPI) in middle and high school social studies classes. I sought to better understand the instruction and conceptions undergirding the instruction of secondary social studies teachers who were nominated by discussion experts as especially skillful at teaching their students to…