Improving the mathematical skills of the next generation of students will require that elementary and middle school teachers are competent and confident in their abilities to perform fraction operations and to solve algebra equations The present study was conducted to (a) quantify relationships between prospective teachers' abilities to perform…

In this paper, we investigate whether and how mathematics factors into students' performance in IT learning. The involved cognitive levels of students learning mathematics and hence problem solving, are correlated to how well they are able to transpose their knowledge and apply it to problem solving in the IT field(s). Our hypothesis is that if…

For the last decade, the American Council on Education (ACE) has charted higher education's progress towards internationalization through its Mapping Internationalization on US Campuses project. Using surveys of US institutions conducted in 2001, 2006, and 2011, the Mapping study examines strategic planning, the curriculum, faculty policies and…

Using the data collected by the CCCC Committee on the Major, the authors demonstrate how quickly the writing major is growing, map the commonalities among various majors, discuss some of the problems in developing a major, and raise questions about what a writing major should be. (Contains 3 figures, 2 tables and 8 notes.)

This author investigated the present state of information systems (IS) master's programs in the United States. A total of 273 institutions were surveyed and 99 institutions were included in the final study population. The results show that 5 out of 8 master of science in information systems (MSIS) 2006 courses are required by less than 50% of…

Discussions have been carried out in recent years regarding the emergence of iSchools in the field of library and information science (LIS). One theme in the discussions centres on whether those iSchools, deriving from LIS programs, are indeed different from other non-iSchools of the field. To address this question, five iSchools and five…

This article describes an innovative collaboration between graduate students and a faculty member to co-design and co-teach a graduate-level workshop-style qualitative methods course. The goal of co-designing and co-teaching the course was to involve advanced graduate students in all aspects of designing a syllabus and leading class discussions in…

"The Vanishing West" traces the decline and near extinction of the Western Civilization history survey course in America's top colleges and universities from 1964 to 2010. This course, covering classical antiquity to the present, was once part of the undergraduate curriculum's intellectual bedrock, not only because it was often a graduation…

In the United States, undergraduates--regardless of their field of study--generally must complete a mathematics course to meet breadth-of-study requirements. This report is aimed at providing a research foundation for practical efforts to improve teaching and learning in such college mathematics service courses (e.g., college algebra, liberal arts…

In this article, the authors discuss a recent study they carried out at a mid-sized state university that used a polling method called deliberative polling. This type of polling differs from conventional polling in that respondents are polled before and after a deliberative session in which they discuss issues based on pertinent and…

This policy brief was prepared for the "Investing in Boys and Young Men of Color: The Promise and Opportunity" briefing held in June 2014 that was co-sponsored by National Council of La Raza, PolicyLink, the Executive Alliance to Expand Opportunities for Boys and Young Men of Color, and the Institute for Black Male Achievement. The…

PISA 2012 results indicate that school systems that group students based on ability levels tend to have lower performance than those that do not divide students by ability. One way some in the United States have sought to increase equity of opportunity is to mandate enrollment of students in college-preparatory mathematics, i.e., Algebra 1 in…

This paper explains a four-year longitudinal study of the assessment process for a Microsoft Office skills course. It examines whether there is an increase in students' knowledge based on responses to pre- and post-surveys that asked students to evaluate how well they can do particular tasks. Classical classroom teaching methods were used in the…

This paper considers school factors that contribute to a successful transition from high school to first-year university Physics courses at the University of British Columbia by employing a two-level hierarchical model. It is assumed that there is a relationship between student performance and the high school they graduated from. It is shown that…

Online credit recovery is becoming a popular choice for students needing to recover lost graduation credit due to course failure. The problem is that high school students who take online credit recovery classes in order to gain writing credit for graduation are failing the writing section on the state merit exam (MME). At-risk students and…