Paraeducators perform multiple roles in U.S. classrooms, including among others preparing classroom activities, working with students individually and in small groups, supporting individualized programming for students with disabilities, managing classroom behavior, and engaging with parents and communities. Yet, little research provides insights…

Research suggests that many substitute teachers do not have the educational pedagogy or teacher certification necessary to be considered highly qualified by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. To address that concern, professional development training for substitute teachers who lack proper certification and educational pedagogy has become an…

Communities face powerful challenges--a high-school dropout epidemic, youth unemployment, teen pregnancy--that require powerful solutions. In a climate of increasingly constrained resources, those solutions must help communities to achieve more with less. A new kind of community collaborative--an approach that aspires to significant,…

Although recent research studies have questioned the efficacy of certification testing, Georgia's Department of Education, with help from National Evaluation Systems, developed the Georgia Certification Test in Administration and Certification (GCT). Since 1983, the test has been required for both certification and recertification. The present…

The improvement of the rural schools of the United States is the most important school problem. The most important factor in their improvement must be better educated and better trained teachers. The education and training of teachers should always have some special reference to the work of the schools in which they are to teach. Therefore any…

In response to increasing concerns about preparing young children to succeed in the primary grades, many states have increased their investment in prekindergarten programs over the past decade. Noting that increased demand for prekindergarten education coincides with a staffing shortage in the early care and education, this study documented the…

In 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) included a Trial State Assessment (TSA); for the first time in the NAEP's history, voluntary state-by-state assessments (37 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands) were made. The sample was designed to represent the 8th grade public school population in a state…

Examined were the educational conditions and efficiency of the school systems during the 1929-30 school year in both the mountainous and nonmountainous counties of Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Information was obtained for five counties in each State which were regarded as the most mountainous and five…

On July 28, 2006, a panel of experts briefed members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the putative benefits of racial and ethnic diversity in elementary and secondary education. Four experts presented written statements to the Commissioners that assessed the social science literature on this issue. They also addressed whether or not…