In the spring of 2020, a global pandemic caused an immediate transition to online, synchronous learning platforms in much of the world. In discussion-based classrooms, where students construct learning from the material and their interactions with each other, the shift posed new challenges to educators and students. This mixed methods action…

Student retention has been an issue that has plagued college institutions for decades. Many researchers have conducted studies to investigate the challenges associated with students staying enrolled at their institutions. Although challenges in student retention exist, for-profit colleges have fared better in student retention than community…

The authors are a group of Western-trained biologists (seven students and one faculty member) from diverse cultural backgrounds, who spent a semester exploring how they might complement their epistemological approach to addressing real-world problems by including possibilities outside the Western-scientific methodology. Their study focused on how…

ePortfolios are considered the eleventh high-impact practice (HIP) by the AAC&U (now the American Association of Colleges and Universities). They have been widely implemented in the humanities but remain underutilized in STEM fields. The benefits of engaged learning, metacognitive awareness, and professional identity development in those…

The author, a veteran ESL teacher, describes a set of specific supports to help long-term English language learners make academic progress that he and other teachers piloted at Luther Burbank High School in California. The interventions included a daily academic support class; monitoring this group's academic progress; "cohorting" them…

Adapted shared storybook reading has been demonstrated to be effective at increasing both engagement and comprehension during shared storybook reading for elementary-aged students with exceptional needs. Research on these methods has primarily been conducted with students in self-contained elementary classrooms and has lacked evidence of…

Numerous interventions have been identified as evidence-based practices for educating students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Physical activity (PA) has recently been recognized as an evidence-based practice to decrease maladaptive behaviors and increase desired behaviors. Exercise has been found to increase academic engagement in students…

After a significant policy change led to the admittance of students with moderate disabilities, St. Agnes School (SAS; pseudonym)--a Catholic PK-8 school in Southern California--implemented an 18-month professional development (PD) program to improve teachers' inclusive classroom practices. Grounded in the theoretical framework of Universal Design…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and its companion projects serve bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities committed to assessing and improving the quality of the undergraduate experience. While each participating institution receives a detailed, customized "Institutional Report," the "Annual…