Understanding the nature of science is even more important than mastering its details, says Alan Leshner, Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in an interview with Educational Leadership. In this article, Leshner discusses the controversy about teaching evolution, and he asserts that demands to…

This article describes the ways that will help school directors in promoting their band program. An example is the Roanoke-Benson High School Band in Illinois which, fourteen years ago, had just twenty-four members. The low enrollment was understandable considering that the high school had 195 students. However, through an assertive effort to…

Since 1990 the New York-based Teach for America (TFA) program has placed more than 7,000 teachers in some of the nation's most challenging school districts. Most TFA recruits serve in schools that qualify for funding under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act due to their high concentrations of students living in poverty. These…

This article discusses the design and implementation of a grassroots culturally and linguistically sensitive program designed to promote the pursuit of higher education among Latino youth. Latinos en Camino al Exito Universitario is an example of a culturally responsive program delivered out of a university counseling center as part of the…

Attracting and retaining highly qualified school leaders is becoming increasingly important in our nation. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that motivate or inhibit practicing teachers from seeking administrative positions. Using exploratory factor analysis, survey responses of 329 students enrolled in Master of School…

Some women have various misconceptions about technology careers. Some of them think that one has to be a geek in order to become a computer scientist. When the Women in Computing Group at Indiana University (WIC@IU) was looking for ideas on how to increase the number of women in computing majors at IU, the authors realized that women were turning…

As in other states, many North Carolina schools face the challenge of hiring and retaining high quality teachers. Recruiting and retaining qualified teachers in math, science and special education is particularly difficult, especially for the schools serving disproportionate shares of disadvantaged or low-performing students. In 2001, North…

This teacher recruitment study was conducted in one of the largest school districts in the United States. The participants (N = 152) were newly hired teachers. Findings revealed the participants considered economic (e.g., teacher salary schedule), school (e.g., location), and community (e.g., cultural opportunities) attributes important in their…

The average tuition of a four-year public college is $3510 per year (Adriane, 2003). In this study, letters were sent letters to the education departments of fifteen state universities in a southern state by a school level administrator. Each university was asked to help the local education agency (LEA) find prospective teachers from the…

Low attendance in out-of-school time programs is the norm for many middle and high school participants. Using a database of more than 60 recent evaluations of out-of-school time programs, the authors examine reasons youth give for staying and leaving programs. They outline a proposed set of promising strategies for both attracting and sustaining…

The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform is committed to making high-performing middle-grades schools the norm rather than the exception. The Forum believes that specialized preparation of middle-grades educators will produce competent and caring teachers who are well-qualified to teach young adolescents. Therefore, the Forum strongly…

According to recent data, the pool of principal candidates is shrinking. How is the role perceived and what can school districts do to make it more attractive in recruiting and retaining highly qualified administrators? This open-ended, qualitative study sought to uncover the underlying reasons leadership-skilled women teachers choose to remain in…

The Career and Technology Education (CATE) program integrates occupational learning into a curriculum of academic coursework. During 2002-2003, 1,217 CATE classes were held in Austin Independent School District (AISD), serving 12,343 AISD students.

This article presents the report of a survey conducted to study the following four issues: (1) how the marketization of education for migrant children came about; (2) the basic school situation, including distribution, operators, conditions, curricula, and general characteristics; (3) teachers and teaching at the schools, including teaching…

This study focuses on three new teachers, Arnie, Andrea, and Frank, who are New York City Teaching Fellows (NYCTF), a program of alternative teacher recruitment and certification that is in its third year at an urban public college in New York City. This study focuses on just three of the Fellows in order to have a more intense look into the…