Sociology faculty are accountable to multiple stakeholders to demonstrate that our academic programs are effective and that students are learning. Despite the ubiquity of mandated program review practices, which often include the assessment of student learning, research is lacking on the extent to which these efforts lead to improvements in…

Hiring academic staff into departments and supporting them remains the single costliest activity that most institutions of higher learning engage in and requires careful, long-term, data-driven planning. This study identifies widely available (but seldom actually used) variables needed for this process: available instructional workload units and…

High-quality instructional materials (HQIM) can make a real difference in student learning. But purchasing HQIM is only the first step in the process of ensuring that students benefit. The Guide to the Implementation of HQIM synthesizes advice from practitioners and researchers about how to encourage solid execution of plans and realize the full…

Departmental research administrators offer a wide range of support services to research communities, university central offices, and fellow research administrators in other departments and institutions around the world. It is important for department-level research administration offices to function as a unit to provide centralized services that…

With mounting evidence over the last 20 years regarding the prevalence and severity of trauma histories among social work clients, there has been a concerted effort across schools of social work to embed trauma-informed principles within course content and training. As students work to integrate classroom skills into field practicums, field…

The Region 15 Comprehensive Center (R15CC) is federally funded to provide high-impact, customized, and responsive capacity-building technical assistance to state educational agencies (SEAs) in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. In 2022, R15CC established a regional Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Collaborative for SEA leaders in…

Over the past several years, states across the nation have seen a decline in the number of classroom teachers remaining in the profession. In November 2022, the Tennessee Department of Education launched work to begin a statewide Tennessee Teacher Retention Listening Tour to engage with Tennessee teachers across the state, hear their lived…

The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), formerly known as the Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Survey, is a part of the U.S. Department of Education's (ED's) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) strategy for administering and enforcing civil rights laws in U.S. public school districts and schools, including Puerto Rico.The CRDC collects a…

eLearning can be a powerful tool for state education agencies (SEAs) to effectively meet their training goals and support the diverse needs of busy educators. When designed, developed, and implemented effectively, eLearning can transform training content into engaging, impactful learning experiences. By considering various delivery methods,…

Little research in physics education focuses on graduate student experiences related to structural elements of their programs. This departmental case study examines the impact and perceptions of written qualifying exams (QEs) from a student perspective, following recent research which questions the role and utility of such exams. We conducted…

Student athlete support services play a vital role in student athlete success at university athletic departments across the country. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires that Division-I (D-I) institutions provide student athletes with academic advising, mentoring, tutoring, and life skills programs (Gerstner, 2017) to help…

Accountability mechanisms and processes have evolved with changes in statute. State Education Agency (SEA) accountability systems may exhibit characteristics of compliance- and/or improvement-focused systems in light of requirements under the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" (ESEA) and its reauthorizations under the…

This updated Louisiana Comprehensive Literacy Plan contains the following sections: (1) Louisiana's Literacy Pillars; (2) Literacy Data from the Fall 2021 Assessment Reports; (3) Louisiana's Literacy Mission & Goals; (4) Louisiana Believes We Can Achieve Improved Literacy Outcomes; (5) BESE Policies Supporting Literacy; (6) Louisiana State…

While faculty trust in administrators has been studied in K-12 schools and four-year higher education institutions (HEIs), we know little about how community college faculty view of trust. Therefore, we examine trust between community college faculty and their administrators using a multicomponent definition to determine which factors of trust are…

This guide is designed for use by school, district, and state education agency staff to improve the effectiveness of efforts to collect and use discipline data, including reporting accurate and timely data to the federal government. It explains the importance of collecting discipline data, identifies key considerations for agencies implementing…