The purpose of this study was to determine the specific needs of the New Horizons School District when implementing professional learning communities. The findings were: (1) teachers do not have a clear understanding of professional learning communities, (2) administrators have a clear understanding of professional learning communities, (3)…

This fifth in a five part series, states that, if comprehensive educational opportunity is conceived as a right, then the state must commit to providing it and must develop a policy infrastructure to assure broad access, uniform quality, regularized funding, and firm accountability strictures to ensure all students a meaningful opportunity to…

In the United States, race--perhaps more than any other sociocultural factor--is the most challenging and complex to understand (Omi & Winant, 1994). Much of this difficulty stems from the powerful yet often unacknowledged role that race has and continues to play in the U.S. context. Race is without a doubt a complicated, contentious, and highly…

In this article, the author suggests that a successful independent school career, especially in an increasingly professionalized environment, follows the model of the best teachers he knew at the start of his career. They did not walk around looking for "either/or" solutions. Instead, they adopted a "both/and" stance. They taught students and…

With the advent of twenty-four-hour news media, local, state, and national agencies' warnings and with the explosive role of the Internet, people are more aware of global health concerns that may have significant consequences for the world's population. As international travel continues to increase, health care professionals around the world are…

Recent policy initiatives in the United Kingdom within the field of disability have rightly highlighted the importance of hearing the child's voice. However, it is also imperative that professionals work effectively together to enable this to happen. This study presents the perspectives of teachers, speech and language therapists and teaching…

Mastering the public school curriculum is so important to a child's occupational future that in many regions of the world "shadow" education outside of the public system has now become the norm. In one way, this is excellent news because private investment in human capital is a strong contributor to economic and social development.…

A review of research on US Catholic education reveals that race is not treated as an important area of analysis like class and gender. Black Catholics are rarely studied in education let alone mainstream writings. This article examines the social and educational history of blacks in the US Catholic Church and the dual reality of inclusion and…

This paper challenges us to consider the meaning of schooling for youth in the global south. We explore the ways in which young people living and learning on the outskirts of Kathmandu balance the visions and passions of modern schooling with social realities that are often quite incompatible. We depart from conventional analyses of modernity,…

Cosmopolitan concern for the whole world is often treated as oppositional to particular collectivities, to corresponding sensibilities and to the obligations that follow from them. Tensions revolve around demands made upon the self (depending on the emphasis on the local or the global) and infuse educational discourse accordingly. Culturalism…

This article presents a lesson that uses prediction items, clickers and visuals via PowerPoint slides to help prospective middle-school teachers address two common misconceptions: multiplication makes bigger and division makes smaller (MMB-DMS). Classroom research was conducted to explore the viability of such a lesson. Results show that the…

This article combines descriptive statistics and interviews with college-bound high school students to explore the connection between increased access and academic quality of Advanced Placement (AP) courses in low-income urban high schools. Results suggest that although moderately more opportunities to take AP courses exist than in previous years,…

Standards-based reform is a trend affecting the educational systems of nations around the world, driven by desires to create educational systems suited to increasing economic productivity. In the USA, The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 includes goals of reducing achievement gaps and getting "highly qualified" teachers in all…

U.S. education is at a transformational moment. The choices we make will determine whether our schools become collaborative and democratic or prescriptive and authoritarian. The policies proposed by the federal government for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will create some good schools for some students while…

This research examined the relationship between teachers' empathy and perceptions of their school's culture. Teachers' ability to change their school's culture might be limited by their inability to interpret and respond appropriately to student behaviour. As teachers' empathic abilities increase, it seems likely that they would be better able to…