Effective leadership preparation includes meaningful, experiential opportunities. This article details an effort to provide these opportunities through a school-university partnership. Through involvement in a semester-long action research project, a cohort of teacher leaders increased academic growth for selected students at their middle school…

Educational praxis incorporating intercultural wisdom, transdisciplinary cooperation, and nature-culture dialogues can arguably contribute to the UN's education for sustainable development (ESD) and ameliorate current social-ecological challenges. This article elucidates how 14 Norwegian pupils aged 11-13 reflect on their experiences and feelings…

Materials development is increasingly recognized as a valuable venue for narrowing the research-practice gap. This qualitative case study explores how four middle school teachers and three university researchers collaborated in a community of practice (CoP) to write textbooks by highlighting the interplay between their collaborative relationships…

Background and Aims: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with impairments in social interaction and stereotypic behaviors. About a third may exhibit delays in verbal expression beyond preschool age, potentially categorizing them as nonverbal/minimally verbal (NV/MV), a condition that can persist into adulthood and affect their…

After years evaluating teacher professional learning programs, researchers Andrew J. Wayne, Jordan Rickles, Mengli Song, Seth Brown, and Michael S. Garet describe a study that changed their perspective. The study's takeaways about the design of teacher professional learning are important for everyone who seeks to create systems to support teaching…

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has implemented a student accountability system that measures students' performance on the State of Texas Assessment for Academic Readiness (STAAR) in several content areas. Therefore, teachers and administrators all over the state are always seeking ways to ensure that students are academically well prepared.…

The concept of professional learning communities (PLCs) has attracted global attention because of its significant role in facilitating teacher professional learning. While increasing efforts have been invested in building PLCs in many systems, few studies have investigated how teacher leaders lead and sustain PLCs. Drawing on qualitative findings…

Despite well-designed curriculum materials, teachers often face challenges in their implementation due to diverse classroom needs. This paper investigates whether Large Language Models (LLMs) can support middle-school math teachers by helping create high-quality curriculum scaffolds, which we define as the adaptations and supplements teachers…

This qualitative case study investigates how faculty members in a Title I middle school engage in collaborative practices to enhance professional growth without formal professional learning. Framed within a descriptive lens (Merriam, 1998) and informed by Brown and Duguid's Community of Practice (CoP) framework (1991), the study addresses two…

The global movement towards inclusive education aims to create a safe environment where teachers are expected to actively pursue various methods to implement asset-based support for all learners. The prominence of the learners' challenges, however, still guides most teachers' methods of support. Teachers need to review all the resources,…

While the importance of social-emotional learning for student success is well established, educators and researchers have less knowledge and agreement about which social-emotional skills are most important for students and how these skills distribute across student subgroups. Using a rich longitudinal dataset of 221,840 fourth through seventh…

This paper outlines the logistics and discusses the benefits of the Professional Development School (PDS) partnership between Sandhills Middle School (SMS) in Lexington School District Four and the University of South Carolina (USC). Through this partnership as well as the University of South Carolina's Center for Excellence, teachers at Sandhills…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore middle school students' and teachers' perceptions of integrating social and emotional learning into curriculum. Researchers recognized the importance of delivering social and emotional learning skills in the classroom as the foundation for the formation of creating students who are caring…

Our country has a digital equity crisis, with many socioeconomically disadvantaged students disproportionately experiencing significant negative consequences from the digital divide. This program evaluation sought to investigate whether the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) grant program decreases the consequences of the digital divide…

Adolescence is a key developmental period for developing and strengthening brain circuits that underlie effective decision-making skills, which profoundly impact lifelong health and academic, professional, and economic achievement. But decision-making skills are learned rather than inherent. School presents an ideal environment for the direct…