Over the last eight years, the University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education (UVA/PLE) has partnered with over 50 districts and state education agencies across the country to embark on high-level change at the state, district, and school levels through the use of leader competencies. This guide calls upon practice-based experience,…

College and university adoption and use of books as common reads has increased over the last several years. The growing popularity has also brought to light significant variations in how colleges and universities select and use common read texts. In some higher educational institutions, one tome is selected for all freshmen to read and discuss…

The purpose of this study was to conduct an initial investigation to examine the perceptions of a sample of special education administrators from a western state to identify the challenges they encounter that may negatively affect their ability to do their jobs well. It was anticipated that the results of the study would be of interest to faculty…

Public teachers in Japan are subjected to a compulsory rotation system where the prefectural board of education governs their entire career paths. Past research has written of the macro- and micro-level impacts of rotation systems, including Japanese teacher rotation, but this paper, based on years of working in and observing Japanese schools, is…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences of six women who navigated a pathway to the position of superintendent. The guiding research question was, how do women who lead suburban school districts of various sizes describe their trajectory to the position of superintendent? Themes that emerged from the…

This inaugural qualitative study solicited English as Second Language (ESL) teachers' thoughts about using ESL to teach Saudi Arabian (SA) university foundation year students about and raise their awareness of energy and sustainability issues. Fourteen participants from three higher education institutions in the Eastern Province of SA prepared…

Little research attention has been paid to the effect of yearlong placements in elite accounting firms and investment banks on the social mobility of working class graduates. Using the framework of Bourdieu, this paper examines the link between placements and employment destinations of eight cohorts of accounting and finance graduates from a…

College algebra continues to cause a barrier for students seeking a college education. Many institutions require students who are less academically prepared to enroll in a remedial course before entering college algebra. This process is costly and time prohibitive to students; adding financial burden to the already present academic barrier that is…

This study examined the book selections of middle-class Korean immigrant mothers for their children's learning and school participation in the U.S. Once a month for six months, data about their book selections were collected from interviews, observation, and artifacts. The findings showed that they preferred informational books as a way of…

Principals are widely seen as a key influence on the educational environment of schools, and nearly all principals have experience as teachers. Yet there is no evidence on whether we can predict the effectiveness of principals (as measured by their value added) based on their value added as teachers, an issue we explore using administrative data…

In the fall of 2013, a parents' group formed to protest the new Common Core based mathematics textbook recently adopted by their school district. Quickly allying with teachers, the new coalition began to, "hammer," the district to drop the Common Core and return to more traditional texts and pedagogies. They did so by speaking at…

Among the many factors contributing to the historical lack of reading gains of our Black male students is the absence of texts accurately and authentically representing African American characters in today's schools. In addition, well-meaning educators are not adept in identifying and selecting these types of texts in order to provide African…

Computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) provide unprecedented opportunities for personalized learning at scale. One such system, iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking) is an adaptive, game-based tutoring system for reading comprehension. This paper describes how efforts to increase personalized learning have…

Purpose: The landscape of physical education has shifted in the 30 years since Metzler and Freedman's seminal study examining the demographics of physical education teacher education faculty. Changes in the structure of physical education and academia justify an updated investigation, with particular emphasis on the gender and institutional…

The training of teachers is one of the most critical factors in improving the quality of teaching and assessment in the classroom. EFL teachers need to be literate in language assessment; this can be achieved through training. A total of 147 Junior High School EFL teachers was surveyed to identify their training needs in assessmen. Semi-structured…