This study explores the impact of attending optional professional learning events on the critical consciousness development of Ready to Learn (RtL) mentors over the course of one program year. Ready to Learn is an out of school time math tutoring and mentoring program that seeks to address opportunity gaps in math learning for middle school…

While the potential benefits of participating in online learning communities are documented, so too are inequities in terms of how different populations access and use them. We present the online learning support roles (OLSR) framework, an approach using both automated analytics and qualitative interpretation to identify and explore online…

This study used ethnographic methods to understand factors influencing the implementation of an educational intervention combining short math content videos with teacher trainings and mentorship in high-poverty primary schools in Nicaragua with implications for rural school reform. Educators in rural schools in Latin American face serious…

A rural university and an urban school district developed a professional partnership that focused on promoting quality teaching by improving the skills, knowledge, and disposition of teachers. The major goals of this professional development initiative including the following objectives: first, establish a quality environment for teaching and…

This issue of ETS Policy Notes (Vol. 20, No. 4) provides highlights from the symposium, "Middle School Matters: Improving the Life Course of Black Boys" held on July 23-24, 2012. The second in a series of four symposia co-sponsored by ETS and the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), the seminar examined the education and status of…

The purpose of this narrative study was to explore the thoughts, perceptions, and experiences of 12 urban middle school teachers who were once urban middle school students. The study sought to discover reasons why these teachers returned to urban middle schools to teach and why they decided to stay. A qualitative methodology, using the…

This study measures the nationwide participation rates of girls and boys in exercise and organized team sports. The central focus is on how the intersections among families, schools and communities are related to children's involvement and interest in athletics and physical activity. Some of the personal and social benefits associated with…