Teacher collegiality has been highlighted as a crucial factor in educational change and professional development. Secondary school teachers have been consistently found to feel isolated from their colleagues, with few opportunities and mechanisms for collegial support and exchange. Research suggests that computer-mediated communication, and…

Many educational initiatives have been and continue to be based on a macro-social system understanding of communal roles, values, norms, interactions, perceptions, and realities. This practice neglects the unique impediments and social norms that exist within the myriad of micro-social systems in the United States. This work draws attention to the…

The child development knowledge teachers use every day to inform their actions has the potential to both enable and constrain children's learning because it permits teachers to view children from only one vantage point. In this article, the authors argue that in addition to teachers updating their developmental knowledge base, it is important for…

Recent trends have resulted in schools implementing an extensive range of preventive and corrective activity oriented to students' needs and problems. Some programs are provided through a school district, others are carried out at, or linked to, targeted schools. Some are owned and operated by schools; some are owned by community agencies. Few…

In 2004, Chapin Hall researchers conducted a study to learn why youth ran way from substitute care (Courtney, et al., 2005). As part of the study, qualitative interviews were conducted with 46 youth who had run away from care and 16 professionals and foster parents who worked with these youth. Although the youth were not prompted with specific…

The California Research Bureau (CRB), in participation with the California Council on Youth Relations (CCYR), and with support from The California Wellness Foundation, has been conducting a major research and policy initiative to bring attention to the issues facing homeless youth in California. These include lack of shelter and educational…

Teachers, like other professionals, need to stay informed about new knowledge and technologies. Yet many express dissatisfaction with the professional development opportunities made available to them in schools and insist that the most effective development programs they have experienced have been self-initiated. "Enhancing Professional…

Recent research suggests that oppositional culture and a burden of acting White are likely to emerge for Black students in desegregated schools in which Whites are perceived as having greater educational opportunities. Using interviews with Black and White students in one desegregated secondary school, this 'school structures' argument is…

In recent years sociologists of youth have drawn attention to the growing disparity between the stated goals of education and labor market policies on the one hand, and the changing priorities, choices and experiences of young people on the other. This article explores a similar disparity in the transitions of young people graduating from…

The chapters in this volume do not represent the whole of the Middle East and North Africa, as such a collection would have been too large for one volume. Rather, the selection here is intended to present different perspectives on a range of educational issues, relevant to a particular focus or country, or common to a number of countries in the…

This descriptive study investigated the benefits and costs of using electronic portfolios (EPs) in preservice teacher education. Grounded within change theory, the study examined the perspectives of faculty in six programs in which EPs have been used on a large scale for two or more years. Benefits identified include increased opportunities for…

The estimated 518,000 children in foster care in the United States are among the most at-risk children in American society. Research shows that foster children are more likely to be at risk of poor life outcomes. The quality of a foster child's primary and secondary education is a major factor in future life success. Early warning signs of these…

On January 23, 2004, President Bush signed the DC School Choice Incentive Act into law. This landmark piece of legislation included $14 million in funding for what would come to be called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). The OSP is the first federally funded K-12 scholarship program in the country and is designed to provide…

This book is intended to serve as a stimulus for discussion of what is needed to provide all American children with a world-class education opportunity and to make education a top priority in every state and the country as a whole. A range of contributors offer a diverse number of possible solutions to the current educational crisis in American…

Every day, an estimated 2,500 students across the nation drop out of high school. In the last decade, approximately 30 percent of students who enrolled in high school have failed to graduate four years later. The situation is even more dismal for youth of color. In 2003, only 55 percent of African Americans and 53 percent of Hispanics graduated…