The goal of this study is to simultaneously explore resource allocation across schools within large urban school districts and across all schools within major metropolitan areas that include those urban districts in the state of Texas. This study uses a three-year panel, from 2005 to 2007, for Texas elementary schools in the Houston, Dallas,…

In recent years, elements of reflective practice have been popularized in state school professional development. As reflective practice has moved into the mainstream, dialogic protocols have been developed by numerous organizations to structure discourse for deep understanding, enhance professional practice and advance organizational learning.…

This paper presents a review of language teacher selection examination and recruitment in Turkey and Poland, together with the national assessments conducted to assess candidates entering the teaching profession such as Praxis I and II and the Teaching Knowledge Test. It further discusses KPSS (Selection Examination for Professional Posts in…

Cyberbullying has become widespread, and is generating growing concerns as it affects students and school climates in general. The objective of this article is to investigate the prevalence of cyberbullying among Serbian adolescents. Special emphasis was placed on gender differences regarding different forms of cyberbullying and victimization. In…

In 2008, the Council for Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association started discussing the possibility of moving away from separate state standards. State education leaders were concerned that existing state standards weren't rigorous enough. So, in 2009, 48 states signed on to develop the Common Core State…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative continues to gather strength. But the evidence presented by its developers--the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)--seems lacking compared to the independent reviews and the available research on the topic that suggest otherwise. In this…

Just under half a million children and young people in state schools in England miss school every day. Indeed, improving school attendance has remained a key aim for successive governments. Various strategies have been adopted at both national and local levels in an attempt to tackle the persistent issue of school attendance with varying degrees…

The European Commission has aimed to increase diversification in the languages taught at primary and secondary educational level and to strive for multilingualism in all state members for the past two decades. The study was conducted with the aim to provide an account of foreign language (FL) teachers' beliefs regarding multilingualism and FL…

Imagine a school where students walked out of class if they didn't agree with the teacher; where gang violence was prevalent both in and around the school; and where enrollment had dropped from 1,800 students in the mid-'90s to fewer than 500 in 2009, that is the school culture at Jackson Central-Merry High School in Jackson, TN. At the request of…

On June 1, 2009, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) issued a press release stating that 49 states and territories had joined the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSS). That initiative proposed that all states voluntarily adopt the same set of…

Low application rates of state school students to elite universities have been identified as a factor in their limited participation in elite universities. This article explores the role of teachers in state schools and colleges in guiding higher education (HE) choice. Drawing on qualitative research with teachers and students in six institutions,…

This study examines two state-supported formative assessment initiatives that promote a consensus definition of formative assessment endorsed by the Council of Chief State School Officers. It describes the primary components of the two initiatives and the strategies that state, district, and school leaders report using to support implementation of…

Although research has been conducted on state and city interventions of educational systems in urban districts in the United States, very little has been written from the perspective of an elected school board, the governing bodies being replaced during this era of reform. This case study illustrates how an elected school board in St. Louis,…

This case study of 2 state universities qualifying as learning organizations, based on administration and staff viewpoints, was completed using a qualitative methodology. The idea of what a learning organization is can be different depending on who or what is being analyzed. For this study, the work of theorists including W. Edwards Deming,…

Background: This study evaluated wellness policies created by Alabama public school districts and progress made in the implementation of Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) school food and nutrition mandates. Methods: Wellness policies from Alabama public school districts were compared to minimum requirements under the Child Nutrition…