The seriousness of concussions in athletics is only recently becoming fully understood and appreciated. There are significant implications for the concussed student-athlete both in returning to the playing field and the classroom. Although practices are now in place to improve identification and management of concussions in professional sports,…

This paper analyzes two recent Korean immigrants' ESL learning motivation using Dörnyei's (2009, The L2 motivational self-system. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), "Motivation, language identity and the L2 self," pp. 9-42) Second Language (L2) Motivational Self-System, which is synthesized with Engeström's (1999, "Activity…

Preparing students to be college or career ready in the 21st Century starts with the foundational skills they acquire in elementary school. Elementary school principals must work to ensure that, not only do they have a belief in their own abilities to provide this foundation, but that their school improvement efforts are reflected in the results…

This paper presents a novel task-oriented, user-centered, multi-method evaluation (TUME) technique and shows how it is useful in providing a more complete, practical and solution-oriented assessment of the accessibility and usability of Learning Management Systems (LMS) for blind and visually impaired (BVI) students. Novel components of TUME…

To explore the potential applications of synchronous technology to enrich student learning, faculty members from an American regional state university and a Chinese regional university collaborated to find appropriate ways to integrate synchronous technology (e.g., Adobe Connect) into an educational technology program in the American university…

Challenging behavior is often a source of frustration for parents. Challenging behavior is defined as any behavior that interferes with children's learning and development, is harmful to children and to others, and puts a child at risk for later social problems or school failure (Bailey & Wolery, 1992; Kaiser & Rasminsky, 2003). Children's…

We provide an expanded environmental scan to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) faced by education communities. Grounded in the literature, we identified 48 indicators and grouped them into 6 broad categories: (1) budget levels, (2) funding patterns, (3) community needs, (4) external economic conditions, (5)…

The U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ) released joint guidance on January 7, 2015, reminding states, school districts and schools of their obligations under federal law to ensure that English Learners have equal access to a high-quality education and the opportunity to achieve their full academic potential. In this context, the…

As punishment in the biblical story of Moses the slaves were told they had to make bricks without straw. This was impossible because bricks made without straw had the appearance of strength and function but could not withstand the proof of actual use. The slaves' punishment was therefore not only to make bricks, but also to find the straw on their…

The Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) provides a web-based environment for the creation, sharing, running and monitoring of Learning Designs. A central feature of LAMS is the visual authoring environment, where educators use a drag-and-drop environment to create sequences of learning activities. The visualisation is based on boxes…

This article demonstrates how media coverage employs dominant neoliberal narratives and discourses to blame public education for societal ills. The authors examine how the media's use of neoliberal narrative and discourse has hegemonically become the "new normal" of public education and school reform. Utilizing data from media coverage…

Research on the use of learning tools has brought to light variables that influence the learner on using or not using the tools. A deeper analysis on the current findings is attempted in this study. It adds a psychomotor task; it assesses the actual functionality of the employed tools, and it further explores learner-related variables that…

This practical resource shows educators how to use the Internet to help students communicate electronically, reaching beyond the borders of traditional classroom walls. The authors--a lifelong professional developer and a dedicated facilitator of improved K-12 education through her work with graduate students in school leadership--provide the…

Veteran school board member, Richard E. Mayer, takes a humorous but substantive approach to the serious relationship between school administrators and board members. While the overwhelming majority of school board members have good motives, even people who mean well can make bad moves. This book shows how to prevent good intentions from creating…

Student failure is a prominent issue in many comprehensive secondary schools nationwide. Researchers studying error, reliability, and performance in organizations have developed and employed a method known as critical incident technique (CIT) for investigating failure. Adopting an action research model, this study involved gathering and analyzing…