Research indicates that the leadership of a school principal is a determining factor in school effectiveness, second only to the role of a student's classroom teacher. Yet, the species of "principal" is dwindling. National reports indicate that a great number of schools and districts are experiencing a shortage of a qualified pool of…

This study analyzes and describes the links between the curriculum policies of one urban school district in the US and an intervention by the economics firm Standard & Poor's (S&P). It characterizes the languages and values introduced to the district leadership by S&P as ideologically neoliberal. This school-level case study that makes…

This qualitative study highlighted student perspectives on barriers to success at a community college located in a south Texas city. The study examined barriers to student success, the knowledge that successful students possess to overcome the barriers, and the actions that successful students undertake to overcome the barriers. Padilla's (2004)…

Research on teachers' (personal) theories and beliefs and their (practical) knowledge derived from experience, whether held implicitly or stated explicitly as their personal practical theories (PPTs), indicates that such beliefs can influence teachers' classroom practices and, therefore, the opportunities that their students have for learning.…

This article presents design, development, and evaluation of POSbase in Psychology teaching. POSbase is a highly flexible system that encourages constructive and self-regulated learning. It also allows researchers and instructors to share their teaching materials and experience. POSbase was introduced to undergraduate and to masters students in…

National background of users may influence the process of technology acceptance. The present study explored this issue with the new, integrated technology use model proposed by Sun and Zhang (2006). Data were collected from samples of college students in India, Mauritius, Reunion Island, and United States. Questionnaire methodology and…

This report offers the first systematic analysis of out-of-school youth populations. In so doing, it estimates the youth bulge worldwide and measures key characteristics of out-of-school youth for sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. In addition, as examples of how existing data can be used for analysis at the national and subnational levels, the…

The purpose of the case study is to describe how one large school district in the United States has expanded their expectations for students based on the perceived need for graduates to compete in an increasingly global job market. The study "summarizes" the processes for establishing districtwide systems to support these expectations. The case…

This study was designed to determine whether teacher portfolios can be validly and reliably assessed, to investigate the effect of an instructional tool on increasing the level of reflective thinking in elementary preservice teachers' portfolios, and to find whether electronic portfolios designed and assessed in optimal conditions represent…

The present study was undertaken to find ways to help bilingual preservice teachers become more aware of diversity and more questioning of methods for literacy development in order to address issues of critical literacy. Twenty-five bilingual preservice teachers, enrolled in a Spanish Reading Methods at the university tutored 25 kindergarten…

Students benefit from collaborative learning activities, but they do not automatically reach desired learning outcomes when working together (Fischer, Kollar, Mandl, & Haake, 2007; King, 2007). Learners need instructional support to increase the quality of collaborative processes and individual learning outcomes. The core challenge is to find…

Federal education policy in recent years has encouraged state and local education agencies to embrace data use and analysis in decision-making, ranging from policy development and implementation to performance evaluation. The capacity of these agencies to make effective and methodologically sound use of collected data for these purposes remains an…

The College Board, NASSP and ASCA believe that the principal-counselor relationship is a dynamic and organic relationship that evolves over time in response to the ever-changing needs of a school. The goal of an effective principal-counselor relationship is to use the strength of the relationship to collaboratively lead school reform efforts to…

Elementary general music teachers typically teach hundreds of students every week. Each child has individual learning needs due to a variety of factors, such as prior experiences with music, music aptitude, learning style, and personality. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore ways that experienced teachers used assessments to…

The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) was assigned the task of compiling, analyzing, and summarizing the data for Indicator 1--Graduation--from the FFY 2009 Annual Performance Reports (APRs) and amended State Performance Plans (SPPs), which were submitted by states to the Office of Special Education…