This article seeks to characterize Teach For America's (TFA) theoretical framework as engendering disillusionment among its corps members. Given that the corps members have little to no pedagogical or methods training prior to taking on teaching positions through TFA, the lessons learned during the summer training set the stage for the…

This article reports on an interview with Marcia McCaffrey, the state arts consultant for the New Hampshire Department of Education and current president of the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE). The discussion revolved around how the new arts standards may interact with evolving structures of arts teacher evaluation…

This paper uses John Furlong's analysis of student disaffection written over 20 years ago as a basis for building new analyses in changing contexts for schooling. Specifically, Furlong's observation of the dominance of psychological based explanations for student disruption and disengagement in education policy making holds--albeit an…

Technology's march into the college classroom continues. Generations of college and university faculty have both embraced and resisted instructional technologies such as the book, the mimeograph, the overhead projector, and hand-held calculators. Now college and university faculty are greeting the 21st century's signature…

Parent trigger laws have gained momentum nationally under the premise that they will increase local authority by amplifying parental voice in the decision to turn around "failing" schools. Using Hirschman's exit, voice, and loyalty framework we create two conceptual models of voice and evaluate the promise of voice in California, home of…

Just about everyone loves the "idea" of cooperative learning, children working productively and excitedly in groups, everyone getting along and enthusiastically helping one another learn. This article presents five strategies that teachers can use to get the greatest benefit possible from cooperative learning and ensure that…

In evaluation and applied social research, focus groups may be used to gather different kinds of evidence (e.g., opinion, tacit knowledge). In this article, we argue that making focus group design choices explicitly in relation to the type of evidence required would enhance the empirical value and rigor associated with focus group utilization. We…

The central thesis of this article is that conceptualizations of accountability systems need to be more encompassing to accommodate the current diversity of school choice. This article examines an emerging type of school that specializes in advanced STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curriculum for gifted and academically…

The assessment of the achievement of students and the quality of schools has drawn increasing attention from educational researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. Various test-based accountability and feedback systems involving the use of value-added techniques have been developed for evaluating the effectiveness of individual teaching…

With the cost of higher education steadily increasing, many people are wondering what, if anything, students are learning on college campuses. In this environment, colleges are facing pressure to make information about what their students learn available to a range of stakeholders, including students and their parents, policymakers, and the…

In education, there is a tension between exploring practice (focusing on the practicalities of an educator's daily work) and critical praxis (problematizing positionality as it relates to pedagogies and engaging in a societal critique). I do not set this up as a duality, a dichotomy, or a continuum, but as a skewed Venn diagram, in which there is…

The purpose of this study was to describe how states in the REL Central Region (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming) evaluate teacher preparation programs and planned changes for evaluation. Publicly available documents were reviewed and interviews were conducted with state education agency representatives…

In 2011, the Board of Regents (BoR), through the development and implementation of the Master Plan, advanced its vision for the future of postsecondary education by adopting the following three broad goals: (1) Increase the educational attainment of the State's adult population to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) States' average by…

As educators are increasingly called on to use data to inform improvement initiatives (and are being held accountable for doing so), there is a corresponding need for program leaders to monitor progress. Program monitoring--the systematic and continual observation and recording of key program aspects--can provide leaders with realistic assessments…

It has been said that while history shapes the hand a state is dealt, public policy determines how the hand is played. State policy for K-12 education--and, by extension, for arts education--is shaped through the actions of various state governmental entities--governors, legislatures, courts, and commissioners and boards of education--in response…