Background/Context: The "college-for-all" movement has guided education reform efforts over the last few decades. Of college-for-all adopters, the "no-excuses" charter school model is arguably the most successful and controversial. Schools that use this model produce high standardized test scores and four-year college…

A three-stage professional development (TSPD) model for training experienced teachers to become teachers' leaders is presented here, along with a study assessing its value. The three stages of the model are: a "basic training" stage, a "master-teacher" stage, and an "independent implementation" stage. This qualitative…

IGNITE, a high school-based programme, was developed for high ability underachievers using the Achievement Orientation Model (AOM), Maker Model, and Bibliotherapy in a mainstream setting. This paper reports on the effects discovered while implementing the programme over the course of 2 years. Year 7 (13 year olds) and Year 9 (15 year olds)…

Universities should conduct research and provide services to the society in their environment. In this article, the relational leadership model was used to evaluate a University-Community partnership in a semi-rural context in South Africa. The relational leadership model is an aspirational model supporting a healthy, ethical, and effective group.…

Over the past 50 years, the number of alternative schools for at-risk students have increased exponentially. However, the research concerning the students that attend these institutions has been, at best, unhurried. Even more wanting is the research regarding the development and critical evaluation of educational interventions that can motivate…

By participating within the educational setting in making decisions about their lives that reach beyond choice-making, students with disabilities who acquire the skills of self-determination may express interests and goals through their own authentic voice. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe the experiences and…

Museum educators partner with classroom educators in a multitude of ways aimed at enriching student experience. This article examines a five-week museum education course at Pratt Institute for pre-service art teachers taught in the model of a professional development series that could be adapted for many museums and applied to meet the needs of…

One purpose of this study was to determine whether patterns existed in pre-high school students' motivation-related perceptions of their science classes. Another purpose was to examine the extent to which these patterns were related to their science identification, gender, grade level, class effort, and intentions to persist in science. We…

Citizens need to be college prepared in higher numbers and with greater urgency than in the past. This growing need for a college-prepared workforce places increased demand on schools to create college-ready students. The Career and College Readiness Standards for much of public education foster the skills and dispositions for academic excellence,…

This paper originates from a study conducted to examine the challenges faced by the Schools for Special Education (SLB) in their effort to empower people living with disabilities. The study aimed: 1) to describe the stages involved in the education for empowerment of the disabled groups through schools for special education, 2) to present an…

Distributed leadership is one of the most prominent contemporary leadership theories in education. Its attraction in education is perhaps due to its potential to bring about school improvement. A review of the literature, however, reveals broadness in the way the construct is being conceptualized and operationalized; thus making it elusive. The…

In an education system marred by inequity, urban schools in the United States are faced with the challenge of helping students from marginalized groups succeed. While many strategies have been tried, most are built on deficit-based models that blame students and teachers for a lack of achievement and ignore the role of power within the school…

Across the country, high schools have found that their ninth-grade students have the highest rates of truancy, discipline referrals, failures, and retentions. A school's worst data points are usually found among freshmen. For this reason, proactive schools seek strategies for transitioning freshmen into high school. An effective freshman…

As zero tolerance policies and retributive disciplinary codes proliferate among public schools throughout the country, this essay reflects upon one school's nontraditional model of school "discipline" as an alternative to such punitive policies. In particular, this essay explores the fairness committee at Humanities Preparatory Academy…

The aim of this dissertation project was to explore and extrapolate the work of the left-libertarian social theorist, Murray Bookchin (1921-2006), paying particular attention to his theory of social ecology and to examine its implications for and use as a comprehensive philosophical/theoretical framework for alternative secondary education that…