Given the newly refined ability to distinguish between teachers and their effectiveness, and the imperative brought on by the Common Core standards (CCSS) to deliver instruction at a more sophisticated level, it is no longer reasonable or tenable to keep treating teachers the same. Instead, school systems should provide their highest-performing…

This study investigates the economic impact of a "turnaround" school on real property values in its surrounding community as related to the argument introduced by Tiebout in 1956 correlating local public goods, in this case school success, to housing-location decision making. Using single-family home sales found on the Multiple Listing System and…

Policy makers' attempts to improve low-achieving schools through reform measures are not new to the 21st century. Research asserts that this policy churn has done little, if anything, to change student achievement levels. Based on the research, I assert that policy reforms such as teacher evaluations and test-based assessment, and school…

Examining the teaching and learning of English as a Second Official Language (ESOL) in Cameroon through language laws and other official documents (like the syllabi) in terms of their actual implementation is an important step in the development of ESOL education. Such investigations may contribute to the strengthening of the minority official…

According to recent Pew Center research (2021), 72% of the US public uses some form of social media. These social media apps -- from Twitter to Facebook to Snapchat to Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and more -- are utilized to establish our digital presence and portray our digital identities. For higher education institutions and student affairs…

The implementation of quality assurance (QA) is one of the most challenging reform areas for Turkey due to the unique organization of its higher education system. This paper explores the development of QA systems in Turkish universities. Using a qualitative case study approach, the authors examine how Turkey accomplishes the goal of implementing…

Throughout the evolution of education, various methods of teacher training have emerged to provide general professional development to educators. After trial and error, forms of coaching, including peer coaching, emerged as one of several operational training tools and has been a recommended method of teacher development in recent years (Cotabish…

In 2004, the University of Kansas (KU) launched an interdisciplinary Graduate Writing Program as part of a larger initiative to reduce time to degree rates and increase degree completion rates. Serving both domestic and international students, this program employs a rhetorical genre-based approach in a series of courses organized around the genres…

The researcher for this evaluative study investigated the efficacy and impact of the iStartSmart college success course by examining the first-term retention, fall-to-fall persistence, and three-year completion rates of community college students who enrolled in the one- or three-credit course at a community college in Arizona and the rates of…

The author never thought he would have to thank Ofsted for a change in its approach that may result in a major improvement in provision; and yet, with the introduction of the revised Common Inspection Framework (CIF), it has made teaching and learning (T&L) the first priority throughout the learning and skills sector. While he wishes to…

In this paper we report on a whole school literacy research project, Embedding Literacies in the KLA's (ELK). The starting point for this endeavour is the theory of knowledge development conceptualised within the sociology of education as the semantic wave (Maton, forthcoming). As discipline knowledge typically resides in the "high…

Rural areas in the alpine regions suffer from dwindling student numbers. Differentiated instruction (DI) could help improve the teaching culture by allowing instructors to better adapt to heterogeneous student groups. At the beginning of a combined research and school improvement project, a survey of 162 teachers and 1180 students was conducted to…

Employee engagement is not just HR's responsibility. While HR is responsible for the process of measuring and driving engagement, improving it is actually everyone's responsibility. And that means reducing the barriers to productivity to drive business performance. Training departments can play a pivotal role. Their job is to enhance curriculum or…

Benchmarking, when done properly, offers a lot of promise for higher education units that want to improve how they do business. It is clear that much is known, but still more needs to be learned before it reaches its full potential as a useful tool. Readers of this issue of "New Directions for Institutional Research" have been treated to useful…

The optimal measurement of the effectiveness of online translation training courses necessitates a comprehensive evaluation of the translation process and product to fully understand the impact of such courses on trainee translators' behavior. In this study, we employed a one-group pretest-posttest design to assess the effect of a 12-week online…