The 2015 edition of the "Annual Condition of Education Report" includes a rich set of information about the status of Iowa's K-12 education system. The report provides valuable feedback about Iowa's students, educators and school districts across a number of statewide measures. They include changes in student populations and…

Each year, Austin Independent School District Department of Research and Evaluation (DRE) staff develop a plan of work to describe the scope of work for the coming year. The plans that make up this document identify programs to be evaluated and services to be provided by DRE staff and provide the blueprints for evaluation that staff will follow…

The issues and concerns facing Kentucky Career and Technical Teacher Education (KY CTTE), university teacher educators and state department Career and Technical Education (CTE) leaders in providing and preparing the best CTE teachers possible are not unique to Kentucky. In an effort to better understand these issues and concerns a team of state…

In this article, the author details the findings of a study of completers during their last semester of a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in special education. The purpose of this multiple-case study was to understand how the extent to which the program was implemented, the participants' background and career trajectories, and the…

A well-known authority on teacher induction programs offers the most comprehensive, up-to-date review of all recent research on the effectiveness of mentoring and induction support for new teachers. Michael Strong provides a revealing analysis of teacher induction programs and their consequences for education, teacher quality, teacher…

This study investigated 198 pre-service teachers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for becoming teachers and focused on the distinction between adaptive motives, which promote lasting and effective engagement, and maladaptive motives, which promote superficial engagement. We examined the relationships with teacher self-efficacy, the quality of…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to evaluate the efficacy of 14 Mathematics, Science and Technology Teacher Preparation (MSTTP) academies located across the state of Texas. The aim of the academies was to increase the number of highly qualified mathematics, science and technology teachers, while also improving the quality of certified…

Turnover and attrition of online faculty and adjunct faculty is a reality. While there are no reported national statistics or data on annual turnover/attrition for online faculty/adjunct, the overall costs of recruiting, training, and replacing faculty/adjunct can be staggering. Moreover, the short and long term effects of online faculty/adjunct…

This study examined career satisfaction among experienced professors at a moderate-sized liberal arts college and explored their motivations for staying in the profession. Experienced professors were defined as tenure-track faculty who had been teaching in higher education for at least 15 years. Data sources included the Experienced Teacher…

Three women of color--a professor and two students--describe the role that community engagement has played in helping them gain a sense of belonging in a predominately white, liberal arts college environment. They discuss how engagement with one another within these three domains assists in their adjustment and retention, as well as how their…

In light of the current challenges in addressing the achievement gap between minority and non-minority students, the persistent problems of disproportionality in special education, and the dismal post-school outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students and those living in poverty, it is critical that successful models of…

One of the most important things school systems can do to promote student achievement is to ensure that all students have effective teachers. Effective teachers may be particularly important for the most disadvantaged students. The U.S. Department of Education commissioned the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to create this report as a…

In 2007, the physical education program at Sunnyside Middle School in Lafayette, Indiana, was in constant flux. Teacher turnover occurred annually, facilities were subpar, the curriculum was outdated, opportunities for professional development were rare, and most importantly, students lacked maximum movement opportunities in physical education. In…

This study explores different perceptions of pre-service and beginning teachers' professional identity in relation to their decisions to leave the profession. Teachers' professional identity was further broken down into six factors: value, efficacy, commitment, emotions, knowledge and beliefs, and micropolitics. This study employed mixed-methods…

The 2014 edition of the "Annual Condition of Education Report" marks the 25th anniversary of the report. Much has changed in the passing quarter century since the 1st edition was released in 1990. Most importantly, the "Condition of Education Report" allows the citizens of Iowa to explore trend data and determine what has…