How do you stay focused on increasing student learning when budget cuts threaten everything you are striving for? This book offers a comprehensive framework to enhance student achievement in good times and in bad. School reform expert Allan R. Odden outlines a school improvement action plan focused sharply on student learning and then shows how to…

This interview-based qualitative study is concerned with the recruitment of secondary teachers in Malawi. This study shows a range of perspectives for pursuing a teacher training course: failure to follow a desired career, springboard to other careers, to upgrade, and teaching out of vocation. It shows that trainee teachers held a range of images…

Information and IT are central to virtually every industry in which the United States plays a leadership role--financial services, entertainment engineering, aerospace, medicine, law, agriculture, and dozens of other fields--yet colleges have failed to attract, teach, and produce a new generation of information professionals to meet the growing…

One study after another shows American students ranking behind their international counterparts in the STEM fields--science, technology, engineering, and math. Business people such as Bill Gates warn that this alarming situation puts the United States at a serious disadvantage in the high-tech global marketplace of the twenty-first century, and…

In partnership with the Urban League of Greater Miami, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released "Teacher Quality Roadmap: Improving Policies and Practices in Miami," an in-depth study of the work rules Miami-Dade teachers. This look at the state of teacher policies in Miami-Dade County Public Schools explores the…

As part of a geography-based minority recruiting program (MRP), teachers were asked to serve as mentors for teams of high school students interested in both postsecondary education and geography as a major discipline or career path. The goal was to determine whether teacher participation in MRP programs was an effective tool to mentor…

The undergraduate Bioengineering Program at Lehigh University was established as part of the university's Bioscience and Biotechnology Initiative with support from the National Science Foundation through a grant from its Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC). The objective here is to describe the program development and…

The aim of this document is to give teachers and administrators the contextual and pedagogical tools for the late immersion program. It acts as a guide for beginning and experienced teachers who need to update their knowledge regarding this program and its details. For many working in this area, it also confirms their daily practices as well as…

No one stakeholder group can realize lasting change on their own; nor can any reform initiative focusing on just one type of strategy create the workplace conditions needed to truly build capacity within the education profession. Rather, stakeholders must focus on collaborating, reaching common understanding, and prioritizing for ultimate impact…

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative investigation was to: a) describe the barriers of recruitment and retention of diverse graduate student population at one of the predominantly white universities (PWUs) in the Midwestern US as perceived by the program coordinators and directors and b) identify successful strategies for improving the…

According to the Austin-based Amati Foundation (a nonprofit group that supports programs for the stringed arts), over the past several decades the number of public school districts offering instruction for violin, viola, and cello has plummeted, from as high as 80 percent in 1960 to less than 19 percent today. Lack of public funding for stringed…

This article presents the results of an investigation carried out across 20+ country-regions under the auspices of ICMI Study 15 into the structures, approaches and general characteristics of the mathematics preparation and development of teachers. We use a global framework provided by the larger research literature on teacher education to…

The education profession is notorious for its resistance to change. School leaders often claim that collective bargaining agreements, state and federal regulations, and budget concerns prevent them from pursuing effective school reform. The culture of the K-12 leadership environment is one that often seeks consensus over progress and collegiality…

Within the UK there are grave concerns about retention and attrition rates within the teaching profession, particularly in challenging schools. These are compounded by worries about the gap that will be left as long-serving teachers reach retirement age. This article is about the working lives of long-serving teachers in three high-poverty urban…

Individuals moving from job to job are argued as a feature of reflexive modernity. This trend is reflected in the increasing number and diversity of "career changers" or "second career teachers" recruited to teaching. Having recruited teachers, retaining them in the profession is recognised as a considerable challenge. In terms…