Currently, the state of Ohio has a separate licensure classification specific to middle-level education, but this was not always the case. Prior to 1998, core teachers were prepared by universities to focus on elementary (K-8) or secondary (7-12). Teachers who obtained their license after the reform are broken into three groups: Early Childhood…

The global COVID-19 pandemic caused immediate and intense changes throughout education, including a reliance on remote instruction. For school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers, who rely on experiential and hands-on learning, the changes brought about by COVID-19 required a dramatic pivot in their work responsibilities. The changing…

School engagement is an important predictor of graduation. One strategy to enhance student engagement is mentoring. Check & Connect is a structured mentoring program that has resulted in favorable outcomes for many students, including those with emotional and behavioral disorders. Effectiveness, however, depends on the quality of the…

Research has affirmed the importance of principals and mentors in supporting novice teachers; however, little is known about how teacher leaders contribute to this work. We employed a mixed methods design to examine teacher leaders' contributions to induction by surveying principals, teachers, and other staff (n = 246) and interviewing teacher…

Keeping in mind the rising rate of K-12 enrollment, and the increased demand for online teachers, the need for professional development of online teachers is keenly felt. The skills needed for teaching in face-to-face environments are not always transferable to online settings. There is a pointed change in the way teaching takes place in an online…

Technology alone won't be enough to improve teaching and learning to where it needs to be for 21st century skills. Where it is being done successfully, teachers collectively share a vision of promoting deeper learning in all their students, and have collaboratively redesigned the role of the teacher to that of facilitator who uses technology as a…

It has become standard practice for teachers to step into the role of "teacher leaders" and perform a variety of curriculum, instruction and assessment tasks for schools and school districts. The literature regarding these Ohio K-12 teacher leaders, who may perform these tasks in addition to or in lieu of regular teaching assignments,…

This study, with funding from the Jennings Foundation, sought to answer the following broad research question: Do facilitated online dual credit courses result in deep learning? The answer to this question is key to addressing barriers many students face in bridging from high school to college. This report includes a descriptive case study that…

There is a dearth of research concerning Response to Intervention (RTI) implementation processes at the secondary level. Because the implementation process requires a change in day-to-day process for teachers and administrators, this could cause a change in roles as a second order change may be necessary for RTI implementation. Second order…

The focus of the Education Works Personalization Project was to facilitate teams of teacher action researchers whose goal was to personalize their teaching with the support of university partners including doctoral students in education. The subsequent apprentice-like research experience within this university-school partnership provided an…

Crossing the threshold from high school to college-level writing expectations constitutes a challenge for many students since secondary and post-secondary composition instructors often work under different constraints and are guided by different curricular philosophies. Dual enrollment classrooms provide a space where these differences can be…

This newsletter of best practices in implementing the High Schools That Work (HSTW), Making Middle Grades Work (MMGW) and Technology Centers That Work (TCTW) school improvement models is based on presentations at the 27th Annual HSTW Staff Development Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the summer of 2013. The newsletter is divided up into…

Online learning is growing rapidly across the United States within all levels of education, as more and more students and educators become familiar with the benefits of learning unconstrained by time and place. Across most states and all grade levels, students are finding increased opportunity, flexibility, and convenience through online learning.…