The transfer process includes areas such as academic preparation and advisement, transfer evaluation, financial aid, and psychosocial factors. A descriptive, exploratory method was employed to capture the perceptions of a transfer student cohort regarding their experiences in transitioning from lower division community college enrollment to…

Students' different educational pathways were examined in relation to their disengagement during adolescence. The participants were Icelandic youth (N = 832) who were followed from age 14 to 22. Based on their academic achievement at age 15 and educational attainment at age 22 they were classified into groups that took expected versus unexpected…

The decentralised Swedish school system has become increasingly directed to the construction of self-governing and responsible pedagogic identities that are supposed to enable integration and participation. Drawing on the work of the geographer Edward W. Soja, I acknowledge how material and symbolic spatialisation intersect with the local…

While "NCLB" has generally succeeded in its intent, the flexibility it provides has led to a fragmented accountability system across states, resulting in different expectations for students and teachers and some unintended behaviors. District and school improvement activities have occurred, but progress to date suggests that the goal of…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Education Appropriations Bill Signed into Law: U.S. Department of Education to Receive $1 Billion Increase in…

A grounded theory approach is used to explore the "lived experiences" of two upper-middle-class families from India who have children with disabilities. Findings provide insight into the parents' beliefs and perceptions about disabilities, their goals and expectations for their children, and their views of inclusive education programs.…

This study aimed to investigate teachers' perceptions and practices related to student outcomes and the criteria of student assessments in secondary school biology classes. Teacher interviews and documents provided the data for this study. According to the results of this study, teachers mainly assessed cognitive achievement by evaluating…

Teacher sense of academic optimism is individual teachers' beliefs that they can teach effectively, their students can learn, and parents will support them so the teacher can press hard for learning. This new construct is grounded in the social cognitive and self-efficacy theories, social capital theory, work on school culture and climate and…

The authors investigated differences in college-going expectations of middle school students who would be the 1st in their families to attend college. Social-cognitive career theory (SCCT; R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994) was used to examine college-related expectations in 272 seventh-grade students. Differences were found between…

A qualitative study with nine Latina/o college students was conducted to determine their experiences with their high school teachers. After careful data analysis, the following themes emerged: (a) some Latina/o students receive high expectations and others receive low expectations, (b) low expectations for non-AP students exist, and (c) some…

This article reports on a focus group study of student experience in a large humanities and social science faculty in Australia. The study had two purposes: the first was to examine student study/work/life balance issues, and the second purpose was to investigate their experiences of study, workloads and assessment. This article reports on the…

There are plenty of theories that may support the protective role of social support in the aftermath of potentially traumatic events. This meta-analytic review examined the role of received and perceived social support in promoting mental health among first responders (e.g., firefighters, police officers, and paramedics or emergency medical…

This article discusses the findings related to a number of research projects investigating students' expectations and experiences of the first year in higher education. In particular, findings with regard to first-year students' expectations and challenges with issues of time management are reported. It was found that many students were realistic…

We examined how the educational expectations that parents with mild intellectual deficits had for their children shaped their children's attainment, and how parents' own intellectual limitations affected this process. We identified 612 parents with mild intellectual deficits and 2,712 comparison parents from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a…

The aim of this study is to compare the characteristics and sources of students' mental models of acids and bases with a teacher's anticipations and, based on this comparison, to explore some possible explanations why motivated students might fail to learn from a subject-knowledgeable chemistry teacher. The study involves a chemistry teacher and…