The problem. To consider reorganization of two or more Iowa school districts in light of declining enrollment, dwindling financial resources, the end of the state budget guarantee program and pressure to provide the most rigorous and relevant education possible to Iowa's students. Specifically, the problem is to determine what two or more school…

This study examined superintendents' or designees' perceptions in light of NCLB (2002) and to understand parental involvement through the lens of Epstein's Framework of Parent Involvement (1992, 1995, 2002). The central problem was that despite parental involvement legislation, implementation and effectiveness of policies, and programs varies…

The purpose of this study is to build upon our understanding of the place and value of writing in the advanced foreign language curriculum. Specifically, the study examines how students in writing-intensive Spanish-major courses are affected by the writing-intensive (WI) requirement at the University of Minnesota. Writing-Across-the-Curriculum…

The case study discussed in this article investigated how the district leadership team of one high-performing school district utilized the Baldrige model to implement a system of continuous improvement. Data sources included the district's Baldrige application and feedback report, interviews of the district leadership team, focus group interviews…

This research project examined how to develop and sustain online, asynchronous learning communities in continuous intake, distance education environments for learners in grades 7 through 10. The study is an action research project that is based upon in-depth, qualitative data. Interviews were conducted with distance education teachers,…

This article presents findings from a qualitative study examining the similarities and differences between American Indian/Alaska Native student perceptions and the perceptions of state representatives, university presidents, and faculty about persistence factors and barriers to degree completion specific to American Indian/Alaska Native students…

Despite the growing interest in teaching second language (L2) pragmatics, the issue of assessment of learners' pragmatic skills, particularly in the context of the classroom, seems to be less prominently discussed, even though the assessment is an integral part of the instruction. This qualitative case study aims to demonstrate an…

This article attempts to explore how parents are involved in their daughters' decision-making around their higher education path. It draws on qualitative research that investigated the process through which young women from the UK and Saudi Arabia reached a decision about a subject or an institution for higher educational study. The paper…

This paper explores the impact of a specially designed programme of communicative strategies on English second language (ESL) development in a scaffolded case study that set out to promote teacher-guided, constructive learner talk in the outcomes-based education arts and culture classroom. The programme was implemented in a multilingual secondary…

This multimethod study investigates the attitudes teachers in urban and low-income schools have about teaching early elementary students. The authors examine the contextual characteristics of elementary schools where such teachers are willing to take responsibility for children's learning. The quantitative analyses focus on a subsample of students…

CHROMACODE is a conceptual tool that uses systematic, logical, and visual processes for organizing and analyzing qualitative research findings for the researcher with relatively low technical knowledge of data analysis. It can best be described as a visual conceptual scheme with coding based on a color-dependent procedure. Color provides a sense…

This study examines textual analysis methodology as applied to mass communication studies. It focuses particularly on the theoretical basis of textual analysis, the analytical process, and congruent theoretical perspectives. Although the term "textual analysis" is often used generically, this study differentiates textual analysis as…

The use of the 2 x 2 matrix in qualitative data analysis and theory generation is discussed, embracing the perspective that the objective of qualitative research in general and the analysis of qualitative data in particular is the development of theory. A 2 x 2 matrix is considered to be a tabular representation of the relationship of two…

This paper summarizes a qualitative approach called the "method of essence" for use within-depth interview projects to further understand the deeper unities of a particular phenomenon of interest, developed by K. Witz in his research and in connection with his work with doctoral students (K. Witz, D. Goodwin, R. Hart, and H. Thomas, 1998). It was…

Case study methods involve an in-depth, longitudinal examination of a single instance or event. They result in an increased understanding of why the instance happened as it did, and are especially well suited for generating, rather than testing, hypotheses. Six types of case studies are discussed, based on the framework of L. Datta (1990). For…