As Filipina/o Americans comprise the largest Asian immigrant population in the United States, the experience of college-aged children of immigrants becomes an increasing concern at the university level. The purpose of this qualitative research investigation was to explore the ways Filipina American students negotiated their home environment and…

Despite high levels of disengagement in urban literacy classrooms, few teachers have seen fit to explore spoken word--the performance of poetry--as a tool to engage students in literacy. Spoken word poetry serves as a powerful means of self-representation for youth that are traditionally portrayed as threatening, menaces to society that do not…

Education policy makers identify access to quality pre-Kindergarten programs as a critical step in early childhood development. While most agree on access, definitions of quality vary widely. A new study by the National Center for Early Development & Learning (NCEDL) finds that families define quality in broader terms than educators,…

Since the introduction of the Coleman Report (1966), the focus on closing the achievement gap has been a critical component of educational policy for political leaders and field research by educators. The economic crisis which California and the nation at large currently face creates a challenging situation in attempting to narrow the gap.…

Objective: At the University of California, Davis (UCD), the authors sought to develop an institutional network of reflective educational leaders. The authors wanted to enhance faculty understanding of medical education's complexity, and improve educators' effectiveness as regional/national leaders. Methods: The UCD Teaching Scholars Program is a…

Recent research literature suggests that students benefit from positive relationships with their teachers. Small high schools attempt to formalize expectations for such relationships through a variety of organizational structures, including the advisor role. As advisors, teachers work with a group of students in order to guide and support them.…

Various forms of practitioner research have received attention for potential to improve schools, yet few studies focus on social circumstances of projects and schools which make potential easier or more difficult to recognize. The "Taking Stock" project in a California elementary school combines teacher and collaborative-action research.…

How can a community ensure that its public schools reflect local values and beliefs about education? The complexities involved in the reform of existing public schools, or the creation of a new system of schooling, have caused some researchers to explore new methodological avenues to change (Banathy, 1991; Duffy, Rogerson, & Blick, 2000;…

This paper examines some of the problems encountered by a Japanese researcher in Japanese communities and Mennonite communities in California and Ontario. (Author)

In the past, evaluation of teacher performance often focused on generic behaviors related to common instructional strategies (Medley, Coker, & Soar, 1984). More recently, educational researchers and test developers have focused more on teachers' subject matter knowledge as tested through tools like the Praxis and California's Single Subject…

Much has been written about the value of teacher research for inservice teachers. Despite the existence of several studies affirming these words, studies that richly describe how student teachers learn to do teacher research and then investigate the impact of inquiry on student teachers and teacher educators, particularly in culturally and…

This policy brief explores kindergarten readiness observation and its benefits to local and state level stakeholders; highlights efforts by California counties and other states to measure school readiness; and makes recommendations for moving toward statewide use of kindergarten readiness observation tools. Key points include: (1) Early efforts to…

In 2002, the RAND Corporation launched a project to understand how educators are responding to the new accountability requirements in California, Georgia, and Pennsylvania--three states that represent a range of approaches, regions, and student populations. The researchers aimed to identify the factors that enhance the implementation of SBA…

This paper explores auto-photography as a form of research practice in the area of identity and self-esteem research. It allows researchers to capture and articulate the ways identity guides human action and thought. It involves the generation and examination of the static images that participants themselves believe best represent them.…

Educational researchers have paid little attention to "critique"--an activity young artists routinely use to assess and advance their creative projects. It is an activity from which they have a lot to learn, particularly in the context of community-based arts collaboratives. In school classrooms where teachers emphasize group projects…