Business and industry leaders do not flinch at the idea of placing top talent in struggling departments and divisions. This is not always the case in public education. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools made a bold statement to its community in its strategic plan by identifying two key reform levers--(1) an effective principal leading each school;…

Many early childhood educators use cameras to share the charming things that children do and the artwork they make. Programs often bind these photographs into portfolios and give them to children and their families as mementos at the end of the year. In the author's classrooms, they use photography on a daily basis to document children's…

Within the context of "Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al.", this article provides the rationale for the academic distribution of scholarly articles without requesting copyright permission or paying the corresponding fees. The fair use of scholarly articles is examined legally, historically, and in an economic context. This article…

In many quarters, the job of presidents increasingly became one of raising endowment money and overseeing campus expansions. The inside joke was that college and university presidents suffered from an Edifice Complex. In the view of many college presidents, the economic crisis of 2008 was a tipping point. In its aftermath, a "new normal" is…

Principals are the front-line administrators being asked to do more with less--strengthening teaching and learning, maintaining morale and building a culture of trust, and creating high expectations while managing scarce resources. Given the challenging roles that these school leaders play, giving voice to principals' needs as well as their…

In today's education reform discussions, educators hear much about the need to close gaps and prepare students for college and career. While it is vital to the nation's future that every student be prepared to succeed in higher education and in the workforce, it is vital to the health and future of America's democracy that schools also prepare…

Implementing change in higher education is complex and challenging and its results are difficult to measure. This article will argue that university senior management can make change happen but it is rarely straightforward and never easy. It reviews the ways in which leaders aiming to enhance practice can implement enhancement activities,…

Eight years ago, the editors of this special issue published another special issue focused on the topic of response to intervention (RtI; Vaughn & Fuchs, 2003). At that time, there was considerable interest in the application of an RtI model for providing services to children at risk for learning disabilities. The potential benefits have led to…

Youth unemployment is a huge challenge for sustainable development in our societies. Statistics offer an alarming picture of the involvement of youth in the labour markets on a global scale. Germany, due to a strong tradition in vocational education and training deeply rooted in its culture, has very low rates of youth unemployment. The so-called…

In this article, the author talks about the use of punctuation and describes a study that confirmed her growing sense that all students need exposure to and instruction on the full repertoire of punctuation. In an attempt to assess how much of the eleventh graders know about the way professionals use punctuation, all teachers at Webster Thomas…

Hands-on science activities help to make science more interesting for children and create that sense of wonder and excitement. But hands-on science and teacher lectures do not offer the full course meal. The textbook is often missing. As stated in the Common Core State Standards, students must have multiple opportunities to become independent in…

Purpose: This article assesses a participatory action and innovation research experience, in which project researchers, farmers and staff members of a local water users association (WUA) came together to: (a) jointly test and adapt a social mobilization and institutional strengthening approach according to the local context, and by doing so, to…

In a strengths-based study, 17 women ages 25 to 54 participated in focus groups to identify their motivations for positive financial behavior change. Performing a thematic analysis of data, evidence shows they progressed through the Transtheoretical Model stages of change. Emotion, family influence, and life transitions helped participants…

Youth's perceptions of violence within their social environments can provide relevant insights into the gender-based interpersonal violence epidemic in inner-city communities. To explore this issue, we examined two sets of narratives with young men and women, aged 15 to 21, involved in hip-hop culture in New York City. In the analysis, we reveal…

In the context of government decentralisation and integration of services, over the last 15 years Sweden has been developing an all-day school based on inter-professional teamworking and adopting a holistic approach to working with children. The article describes these recent educational reforms in Sweden, which have sought to re-structure the…