Toronto boasts a large and diverse system of public alternative schools: schools where democratic practices, student access and a commitment to public education are fundamental. There are academic schools; schools with thematically focused curricula; schools driven by social movement principles such as antiracism and global education; schools for…

As originally conceptualized, Early Colleges were small schools focused purposefully on college readiness for all students. Frequently located on college campuses, Early Colleges targeted students who might face challenges in postsecondary education, including students who were the first in their family to go to college, economically disadvantaged…

The purpose of this program evaluation was to evaluate the effectiveness of a personalized learning environment while analyzing the cultural changes a small school district faced as it transitioned to a new delivery model using individual technological devices. Findings for the study will be used to guide 1:1 Chromebook implementation initiatives…

The role of principals, especially in rural schools, where educational outcomes fall below the national average, is significant in implementing changes in the school. The focus of this qualitative study was to explore factors that principals deem most crucial to establishing and maintaining Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Moreover,…

An extensive body of research describes the stark social and academic disparities that characterize large, comprehensive public high schools. Advocates have argued that smaller high schools, with their necessarily more constrained curricula, have the potential to improve student academic outcomes and their equitable distribution. Using propensity…

This research brief is Part III of a four-part study of decentralization in Houston Independent School District (HISD). This part examines the impact of decentralization on student outcomes. In hopes of improving student performance, HISD implemented decentralization throughout the 1990s (see Part I of this project for a detailed discussion of the…

Purpose: Implementation of quality management systems in educational institutions has gradually increased over the last few decades, even though there are still questions about the actual usefulness of these systems for improving school processes and outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to take an in-depth look at the impact, understood as…

Small schools and their communities contribute to an important, though threatened, knowledge base. The threat adheres in underlying technologies (conceptual and material) that propel the capitalistic world towards the rationalization of all aspects of human activity. In education, this appears in the consolidation of small schools and ever larger…

This ethnographic case study examined the experiences of African American students within an urban school detracking reform initiative, which was intended to replace tracking practices through the institution of small schools. Over the course of a year, the researchers interviewed administrators, teachers, and students while gathering…

Late in 2018, the California Department of Education rolled out an updated version of the California School Dashboard. This revision altered the look and feel of the Dashboard and added new indicators based on newly available data. This brief updates a 2018 analysis of the Dashboard. First, I examine whether the state's revisions are in line with…

Across all 50 states, there are different ways in which states allocate K-12 funding to districts. This document provides information for each state on: at-risk funding for low-income students and funding mechanism, at-risk identifier, at-risk citation, gifted and talented funding and funding mechanism, gifted and talented citation, small size or…

It cannot be overstated the broad skill set managers must have to manage conflict in modern organizations (Lang, 2009; Ramani & Zhimin, 2010). Few studies have explored this topic in smaller organizational settings where leaders often assume a greater number of roles and responsibilities. For this reason, this study analyzed preferred conflict…

A pressing need on principals and their demands for personal professional development is improving their performance based on evaluation policy standards. State policy standards dictate how principals evaluate teachers and how they are evaluated. Surveying rural principals we investigated the current understanding of state standards and needs for…

Technology has become an unavoidable part of a teachers' academic experience. In this technological world of evolving electronic devices, knowledge of how teachers perceive the value of web-based content and chosen devices as a medium for teaching and learning is imperative when making curriculum decisions. This study explored teachers'…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the ways in which hip-hop pedagogies and literacies encouraged middle school students to explore performance poetry as a tool to "(w)right" the truth(s) about learning and living in their local and global communities. Design/methodology/approach: Collaborative self-study research…