The purpose of this project was to move the educational team of Westwood Baptist Academy (WBA) toward a collaborative approach to professional development by utilizing principles of distributed leadership to initiate a peer-led professional learning community. The Project Director lead a twenty-member educational team through a twelve-session…

As community schools spread across the country, community school staff need effective approaches to engaging families and community-based partners. Such principles must be broadly applicable, given community schools' mandate to adapt to different local contexts. Based on recent research on Baltimore City's community schools, the authors highlight…

Moving from a traditional school district to one that embraces a community schools model requires fundamental shifts in organizational structure and practices. Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation in southern Indiana and Vancouver Public Schools in Vancouver, Wash., are two districts that have navigated this change. Leaders from those…

The EdResearch for Action "Overview Series" summarizes the research on key topics to provide K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students. This overview brief discusses the central question: What is the evidence on strategies to build a sense of school…

In a new context of management and teaching action, framed by the organisation of the school into educational teams, middle leaders can play a key role in promoting learning communities, teacher development and improving teaching. Therefore, it seems relevant to understand the practices of these leaders that make their leadership effective. To…

The widespread adoption of restorative practices in U.S. schools to address educational inequities has been significant. However, the existing literature on restorative practices lacks research regarding the impact of this approach on sexual/affectual minority students. In our study, we explore the experiences of sexual/affectual minority students…

"Comprehensive Classroom Management" helps K to 12 teachers understand and apply the principles of effective classroom management in their own classrooms. It offers the background, practical advice and real-life examples you need to understand how to apply the principles of classroom management in your own classroom situation. The…

In the United States, people often feel like they need to choose between pursuing a conventional four-year college degree or working, leaving millions of people with no opportunity to achieve the professional and economic advancement that comes with a bachelor's degree. What if this is a false choice? Apprenticeship Degrees offer a hybrid option…

As editors Sara L. Hartman and Bob Klein acknowledge, rural places have long experienced systemic inequities that decrease rural students' access to education, yet many rural schools and communities have found creative means to make up for the dearth of outside resources. "The Middle of Somewhere" brings to light a wide variety of…

Many teacher educators (TEs) see their role as influencing radical change in K-12 classroom teaching. And yet, many TEs might characterize their own growth as steady and measured experimentation. In this paper, we explore sudden and drastic changes to praxis that TEs experienced when reorganizing their courses and programs around Mediated Field…

Much attention has been focused on the importance of providing physical and mental health services to students in educational environments in recent years. Millions of students receive school-based health services, and for many students, schools are their first and only option to receive health care. State policymakers have a lot to consider in…

Emerging research has revealed the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on communities of color (Wilder et al., 2021), and the subsequent rising rates of racialized trauma that has occurred due to increasing racial injustice in the United States (Horsford et al., 2021). Although calls have been made for trauma-informed and social and emotional…

Community engagement programs offer college students an opportunity to impact youth in rural, low-income communities. While in a rural setting where educational training and support is not abundant, college students learn about struggles that rural, low-income youth face in exploring and attending postsecondary education options. The Alternative…

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to explore how first-generation college students in the southwestern United States narrate their experiences facing academic challenges and choosing whether to ask for academic help. The theories of academic help seeking and cultural mismatch provided the theoretical foundation. The research questions…

Language and culture are central to learning and human development, as they shape the ways in which people all learn and grow together. Individuals learn as members of a community that values their participation and is respectful, productive, and inclusive. This report tells the story of the UCLA Community School (UCLA-CS), a public school in…