Extensive reading is being practiced in many EFL and ESL classrooms as an effective means for developing learners' reading as well as other related skills. This paper is based on a small-scale study that explores the current practices and future possibilities of using extensive reading in the EFL classrooms at the junior secondary schools in…

This article introduces the Citizen Scholars Program, a 2-year service-learning and leadership development program that integrates theory and practice to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and vision the authors believe they need in order to build community, be effective citizens, and advocate for social justice. The authors present 16…

Context-responsive teaching is defined in this project as teaching that responds to individual student needs and interests, linguistic backgrounds and family characteristics, the local community and the local natural environment. Context-responsive teaching, as defined in Chapter 1 of this dissertation, consolidates into one concept the…

This report takes a comprehensive look at achievement for low-income promising learners--past, present, and future. At its core, it challenges the nation to move beyond its near-singular focus of achieving minimum performance for all students, to identifying and developing the talent of all students who are capable of high achievement, including…

Not that long ago there were fairly clear divisions between researchers at different stages throughout their career, starting with doctoral students then progressing to postdoctoral workers and finishing with academic staff. However, more recently the term Early Career Researcher (ECR) has been introduced partly as a response to their growing…

Most researchers, policymakers, and educators believe that children do better in school when their parents are involved in their education. However, there is no gold standard for how to engage parents. Consequently, schools often employ a broad range of "parent involvement" efforts, with little clear evidence about what works best and for whom.…

This study examined the relationship between strong instructional leadership, as measured by the Principal Instructional Measurement Rating Scale (PIMRS) and high student academic outcomes in 35 Mid35-Atlantic Catholic elementary schools. In addition, the research explored the role of Catholic identity in supporting instructional leadership…

The purpose of this quantitative one-group pretest-posttest design study was to test the effectiveness of professional development for integrating technology in the curriculum of an urban Iowa middle school. Iowa middle school teachers are expected to integrate technology, to comply with Iowa Core Curriculum standards, by 2014. The participants…

This qualitative research study focuses on crisis events affecting university international populations. It explores how seven directors of university international offices at seven different geographical locations in Texas respond to those events. The study findings shed light on the current state of crisis preparedness in higher education from…

This study explored whether financial leaders and institutional governing boards use financial indicators as a tool to inform decision making, solely as a compliance measurement tool, or not at all. The purpose of this qualitative study was two-fold to: (a) identify the use of financial indicators in strategic decision making, and (b) investigate…

This guide is primarily aimed at skills providers for unemployed adults, but will also be of interest to learning providers that wish to engage micro-businesses for the purpose of delivering other forms of provision such as apprenticeships and work-based learning through full cost recovery. The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education…

This paper addresses the topic of assistive technology (AT) to offer a direction for its future role within the rehabilitation profession. A brief overview of the five AT legislative acts to date is provided. Next, future considerations for AT are offered in the context of what we know within the U.S. and global communities followed by the…

In this column, the author discusses how the management of e-books has introduced, at many libraries and in varying degrees, the challenges of maintaining effective technical services workflows. Four different e-book workflows are identified and explored, and the author takes a closer look at how particular variables for each are affected, such as…

Researchers in career and technical education often ignore more effective ways of reporting and treating missing data and instead implement traditional, but ineffective, missing data methods (Gemici, Rojewski, & Lee, 2012). The recent methodological, and even the non-methodological, literature has increasingly emphasized the importance of…

Utilizing critical and sociocultural approaches to teaching and learning, this article presents data from seven middle grade students at a Title I school regarding their experiences in a student-constructed learning group. Findings reveal students' desires and abilities to constructively participate in work with others that runs contrary to common…