A principal preparation practicum review was conducted on a university preparation program to identify strengths and areas for growth, with particular attention to instructional supervision and leadership. Findings should inform others wishing to focus on program improvement and help districts plan for continued support of principals in their…

Most communities have afterschool programs that give school-aged students a safe place to go after the dismissal bell rings. The next step after simply providing a safe haven is to create a nurturing environment that develops young people's talents and supports their needs. A formal mentoring program can help to achieve this goal. In order to…

Bullying in schools is a tremendous challenge that many secondary educators are attempting to address within their school environments. However, educators are often unsure of the attributes of an effective anti-bullying program; thus, they tend to create programs on a "trial and error" basis. This article provides an overview of the…

Over the past 15 years there has been an increase in the number of secondary schools in New Zealand developing sports academies, yet there has not been a corresponding increase in the critical or empirical research investigating this phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to describe the micro-politics associated with the inception and…

This chapter describes the historical and contemporary theoretical underpinnings of learning communities and argues that there is a need for more complex models in conceptualizing and assessing their effectiveness.

The purpose of this case study was to describe a single multicultural women's support program known as the Women of Care Project. The program was conducted in a community in the Midwest region of the United States and began in 2005 with a grant from the Open Meadows Foundation. Participants were volunteers who were recruited for the program…

When transitional kindergarten (TK) in California began in the 2012-13 school year, there were many questions about this new grade--available typically to only those children born during the month of November. Parents wondered: What is TK? Who is eligible? Does my district offer TK? Is TK right for my child? With the delayed final approval of TK…

This report reviews national and international research on widening participation and access programmes to find out which methods are most likely to help disadvantaged pupils get into higher education. Analysis of existing research in the United States and United Kingdom suggests that summer schools, tutoring, and mentoring are among five methods…

Reading skills are the key building blocks of a child's formal education. Yet, the national statistics on literacy attainment are profoundly distressing: two out of three American fourth graders are reading below grade level and almost one third of children nationwide lack even basic reading skills. This study reports on an evaluation of the…

Since the Student Education Loan Fund (SELF) Loan program's inception in 1984, over 250,000 students have received more than $2 billion in SELF Loans to pursue their postsecondary education (Minnesota Office of Higher Education, 2014a). The SELF Loan program provides undergraduate and graduate students with long-term, low-interest educational…

Using phenomenological methodology, the authors explored the experiences of 11 men in a master's-level counseling program. Participants described the challenges and advantages of being a minority in number, being in a relational environment, and having an awareness of a patriarchal system. These findings suggest the importance of counselor…

Background: This paper adapts the four-frame model of organizational change to the context of higher education. We offer the model as a tool for researchers and change agents who wish to study and enact systemic change within STEM departments. We provide the four frames in contrast to overly simplistic models of change that have been shown to be…

The dual education system is one of the world-recognized models of training qualified staff. Due to consolidation of resources of all participants in this process, training of qualified staff meeting requirements of the employers is ensured. In terms of implementation of the dual education system, the task of providing production training of the…

The ability to tell stories can be an important leadership attribute and skill to master in order to be a successful leader (Baldoni, 2003; Denning, 2004; Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Storytelling is a central component of effective communication for leaders and a skill to master for future leadership success. This paper supports active learning,…

This study examined preservice teachers' (PSTs) capacity for lesson planning in a university-based teacher preparation program in the USA Participants (n = 126) wrote lesson plans in three approaches: synthesis, creation, and modification. Findings indicate that PSTs who modified preexisting lesson plans produced better lesson plans than their…