Although much national effort has been made to align the K-12 and higher education systems, the educational pipeline is still leaky at every stage. Furthermore, one of the on-going issues in the educational system is the lack of readiness of high school graduates for post-secondary education, especially for low income and minority students. As a…

It's up to school leaders to shift the momentum away from conversations based on misperceptions and toward those that study critical issues about school improvement. "Crucial Conversations About America's Schools" talks about how to do this and provides examples of how to reframe conversations on the hot-button but important topics of…

Background: On the one hand, achievement indicators like grades or standardized test results are strongly associated with students' domain-specific self-concepts. On the other hand, self-evaluation processes seem to be triggered by a self-enhancing means of information processing. As a consequence, above average students have more positive…

In this action research project report, the teacher researcher focused on the problem of lack of achievement of students in middle school social studies classes. The purpose of the project was to increase motivation and engagement of students by incorporating the use of technology; thereby, increasing achievement. A total of 105 sixth-grade…

Students with mathematical learning disabilities (MLDs) experience persistent challenges learning even the most elementary mathematics. While prior research on MLDs has classified students on the basis of test scores and documented performance differences between groups, this dissertation focuses on the qualitative differences in individual…

China has become an exporter of material goods to the world, particularly to the United States. It is time for the exploration of a mutually beneficial relationship in a strikingly different realm, that of human capital in higher education and its contributions to the quality of university teaching. To faculty members and students at U.S.…

This study investigated teachers' beliefs about the changes needed to improve student learning in low-performing schools. The study employed a new instrument, the Need for Change Assessment (NCA), which solicited teachers' perceptions of the need for change in areas such as reading and math programs, classroom instruction, and school policies.…

A study of 31 high-performing teachers in low-performing urban schools found that these teachers had certain traits in common. They were strict; they taught in traditional, explicit ways; there was little time in their classrooms when instruction was not occurring; and they moved around the room helping their students. They used very few…

The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership style of Mr. Stanley Blackmon, former principal of Lanier High School and to compare his leadership style to an existing educational theory. To obtain this information, an interview was conducted with Mr. Blackmon in December of 2009. Research was also done in order to find an educational…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) House Begins Work on FY 2010 Appropriations: Subcommittee Shoots Down Obama Proposal to Shift Title I Funds to School…

The purpose of the current study was to compare students' oral reading fluency (ORF) skills before and after summer break. This study examined whether students whose ORF regressed would regain those skills within a month of returning to school. In particular, the study examined differences between students with and without specific learning…

This study aimed at the investigation of psychosocial and psychiatric risk factors of adolescent suicide by means of a case-control psychological autopsy study. Relatives and other informants of 19 suicide victims and 19 matched psychiatric controls were interviewed by means of a semi-structured interview schedule. Psychiatric controls included…

Backers of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law based their support on the belief that teachers and administrators primarily were responsible for low levels of achievement by America's poor. This one-sided view about who is responsible for the nation's achievement gap is both inadequate and unsupported by the evidence. The author argues that harsh…

The study investigated several teacher characteristics, with a focus on two measures of teaching experience, and their association with second grade student achievement gains in low performing, high poverty schools in a Mid-Atlantic state. Value-added models using three-level hierarchical linear modeling were used to analyze the data from 1,544…

The Alphabetic Braille and Contracted Braille Study found no difference between high and low achievers in the development of literacy skills on such measures as age, etiology of visual impairment, family attitudes and behaviors regarding literacy activities, class size, and time spent with a teacher of students with visual impairments. Some…