Students in Appalachia have a heritage of problem-solving. We explore how computational thinking (CT) relates to and complements this heritage by analyzing 34 local ingenuity stories, and perspectives from 35 community members about the relevance of CT. We found the two problem-solving approaches are meaningfully different, but can be used in…

The Government of South Sudan, in collaboration with UNESCO, is implementing a project with the aim of strengthening TVET in South Sudan. The project commissioned a baseline study to engage stakeholders in an in-depth discussion to unpack what they consider to be the key entry points and pathways to enable TVET to effectively accelerate a green,…

A well-intentioned bipartisan coalition came together in the late 20th century to spur improvement of the K-12 education system through test-based accountability and public school choice. The ability of this coalition to institute and maintain meaningful "accountability" proved extremely limited. State accountability systems morphed into…

The 2017 TEKS revision, the 2023 STAAR redesign, and the 2024 TCTELA conference theme call on literacy professionals to "forge the future of literacy" in Texas. Specifically, the future demands that we more fully integrate reading and writing instruction and that we help students develop a deeper understanding of author's purpose and…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how elementary teachers thought processes manifested in their teaching praxis. This exploration was conducted around their experiences in a professional learning community centered on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). As a practitioner scholar, I utilized Seidman's (2019) in-depth…

The comprehensive research explored the conventional academic and overall success metrics, focusing on redefining success specifically for Black College Women (BCW). With a focus on social justice issues, the study aimed to reassess the standards for academic achievement through the perspectives of traditional educational methods and their impact…

Background: Consistent with the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Approach, food education encompasses nutritional status, culture, community, environment, and society. Unifying standards are needed to support food education integration in K-12 curricula. Pilot Light, a Chicago-based nonprofit, sought to generate such standards. This…

Educational standards movements have manifested in the widespread adoption of statewide educational standards in mathematics and literacy in the United States. Within this policy context, the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards published educational standards for four fine arts disciplines, including music. Drawing from critical theory,…

Over the past two decades, there have been several investigations into the inclusion of human rights content within U.S. schools. Scholars have observed that there is continued resistance to the full inclusion of human rights into U.S. K-12 social studies standards. Reasons for that delay include a lack of teacher training in human rights, the…

States must adopt an equity-focused approach to transfer policies to address racial equity gaps and make progress toward attainment goals in postsecondary education. State higher education agencies should assess transfer performance based on race and income and establish standards for creating equitable transfer policies. To support state and…

Using the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U-Test to analyze 128 survey responses from K-12 teachers, this paper considers how value-added measures (VAM) impact educators' decisions to include Latinx topics in their social studies lessons. The authors found that VAM teachers are more likely to rely on district/state curriculum standards whereas non-VAM…

We demonstrate evaluating levels of student engagement in online classes for accreditation. By synthesizing four categories of student engagement (Hillman, Willis, & Gunawardena, 1994) and individual activities from Adler (2020), we extend and use a comprehensive set of student engagement activities for assessment. This systematic evaluation…

Nationwide, a growing percentage of kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) teachers report regularly using standards-aligned English language arts and math curriculum materials. Despite this uptick in the regular usage of standards-aligned materials across the United States, not all teachers use these materials for the majority of their…

In the context of language diversity in schools, this research underscores the persistence of monolingual academic standards despite linguistic variety. Bilingual education, historically intertwined with sociopolitical agendas aligning with dominant societal power structures, necessitates a paradigm shift. Bilingual educators must empower students…

Providing clear guidance to teachers is not a straightforward task for school systems: Teachers get information about what to teach and how to teach from many sources, some of which are beyond the control of school systems. When teachers get different, even conflicting, messages about what and how to teach from various sources, they likely…