The purpose of this study was to further extend research initially conducted in 2003 pertaining to the critical issues K-12 principals address on a daily basis. The study involved surveying school principals within the state of Mississippi to discover the critical issues they identified, the significance level of these issues, and the rationale…

There has been increasing interest in assessing teachers' cross-curricular competencies as a result of reforms in teacher education in Switzerland. At Zurich University of Teacher Education, future students who do not have formal qualifications are required to pass several examinations and a test, which is known as an "assessment…

Collection development librarians have long struggled to meet user demands for new titles. Too often, required resources are not purchased, whereas some purchased resources do not circulate. E-books selected through patron-driven plans are a solution but present new challenges for both selectors and catalogers. Radical changes to traditional…

This article is designed to help teachers feel more confident in their work with STEM Ambassadors to further enhance enrichment activities. Skills shortages in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) and the Built Environment are well documented, and will continue to be an issue whether people are in a period of recession or recovery. The…

Despite much research into mate selection, non-heterosexual populations are often only included for comparison purposes, while trans people and their partners are overlooked. This study attempts to address this using qualitative methodology to explore the mate selection of the partners of trans people. Six participants were recruited from online…

U.S. education is at a transformational moment. The choices we make will determine whether our schools become collaborative and democratic or prescriptive and authoritarian. The policies proposed by the federal government for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will create some good schools for some students while…

Introduction. Failure to find information is common. An exploratory analysis of cases when family members or friends were asked for information can provide better understanding of when, how and why interpersonal information seeking within a close network of individuals fails. Method. A sample of utterances (in form of "I asked my mum, but") was…

The purpose of this study was to focus on how school districts are incorporating effective teacher induction programs in their school districts. The goal of the study was to identify effective research based characteristics of teacher induction programs and investigate how these characteristics are or are not utilized in the school district's…

How do you stay focused on increasing student learning when budget cuts threaten everything you are striving for? This book offers a comprehensive framework to enhance student achievement in good times and in bad. School reform expert Allan R. Odden outlines a school improvement action plan focused sharply on student learning and then shows how to…

The California Department of Education (CDE) has long asserted that success Algebra I by Grade 8 is the goal for all California public school students. In fact, the state's accountability system penalizes schools that do not require all of their students to take the Algebra I end-of-course examination by Grade 8 (CDE, 2009). In this dissertation,…

The purpose of this study was to develop best practice standards for hiring public school teachers. This standard was developed from the available literature on recruiting, screening, selecting, and hiring high-quality teachers. The targeted and actual hiring processes of a case study district were compared to this teacher hiring standard.…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the experiences of instructional designers and professors during the online course development process and to determine if their experiences had an effect on the process itself. To gain an understanding of their experiences, open-ended interviews were conducted, seeking descriptions of…

A strike last week by some 29,000 teachers in Chicago pushed long-simmering tensions over deeply divisive school improvement ideas--including changes in teacher evaluation and the takeover or closure of underperforming schools--into the national spotlight. A framework for a tentative agreement emerged last Friday, and the union's house of…

Utilizing generational theory, we explored the relationship between Millennial characteristics and students' major selection and academic advising experiences. We conducted focus groups of students with senior standing at a private, midwestern university, and we utilized a closed coding technique to analyze the qualitative data. Consistent with…

Secondary education in Fiji ends with the Form 7 examination. Predictive validity for academic success of Form 7 scores which form the basis for admission into the Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery programme of the Fiji School of Medicine was examined via a cohort of 129 students. Success rates for year 1 in 2008, 2009, and 2010 were 90.7…