Following thirty-nine states, Illinois became the 40th state to make Civic Education a mandatory class for students to graduate high school in 2015. The mandated class is a semester long and usually occurs in the students Junior or Senior year of high school. The Illinois General Assembly then passed a separate bill that indicated that the 2016-17…

Saudi educators are increasingly concerned over whether principal preparation programs in Saudi Arabia are accomplishing their goal of developing qualified leaders who are prepared to take on the tasks of school principals. Thus, Saudi researchers recommend that the school principal preparation programs undergo evaluation. This study examines…

We present a methodological improvement for calculating Grade Point Averages (GPAs). Heterogeneity in grading between courses systematically biases observed GPAs for individual students: the GPA observed depends on course selection. We show how a logistic model can account for course selection by simulating how every student in a sample would…

Unequal academic outcomes in postsecondary education persist for students from underserved populations (students of color, low socioeconomic status, first-generation), despite increased access to higher education in the last half century. General education classes present prime opportunities to address academic inequity. They typically have larger…

This paper examines primarily the courses in the accounting major and a portion of the business core of the best thirty accounting programs in the United States as identified by the Accounting Degree Review. A thorough examination of each school's web site has been conducted to gather current (2014) information concerning the requirements for a…

Technology & engineering teacher preparation programs at colleges and universities in the United States have been in a state of decline since the 1970's. In the fall of 2013 a study was conducted to compare the required curricula of the 24 undergraduate programs that maintain enrollment of 20 students or more in order to determine what a…

This article reports on the multi-year collaboration between the Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI) at the University of Illinois and the University's Rhetoric Program, a required first-year writing course. I argue that this collaboration was successful in large part because the goals of writing programmes in American higher education…

The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center (IHMEC) strives to engage youth as citizens through "Make a Difference! The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition." Teaching about the Holocaust is complex and challenging work. Holocaust education is mandated in Illinois elementary and high schools, yet the Museum finds that many…

A rural Community College evaluated their procedures for preparing students for online courses and determined they were not meeting the needs of the students. Through the use of the ADDIE Model of Instructional Design, a mandatory online orientation for first time online/hybrid students was developed and implemented. Results from the…

Algebra is often considered as a gateway for later achievement. A recent report by the Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008) underscores the importance of improving algebra learning in secondary school. Today, a growing number of states and districts require algebra for all students in ninth grade or earlier. Chicago is at the forefront of this…

This study describes the objectives, structures, and outcomes of a one-semester, required sociology research capstone course as taught at three institutions. Pre- and postquestionnaires from students, syllabi from instructors, and a random sample of final research papers were analyzed. Results indicate that the main foci of the course are to…

This study is an efficacy trial funded by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) National Center for Education Research (NCER). Fifteen CPS high schools are receiving funding to implement two Algebra I credit recovery courses during the summer sessions of 2011 and 2012--one online and one face-to-face (f2f). These courses allow…

Our country has been trying to address the graduation crisis in many ways. We are seeing the impact of the efforts to improve graduation rates over the past twenty years including agreement among states to implement a common cohort-based graduation rate, research-based efforts to improve the transition to 9th grade, increased academic and social…

The consequences of failing core academic courses during the first year are dire. In Chicago, over a quarter of students fail at least one semester of algebra in their ninth grade year, and only 13% of students who fail both semesters of Algebra I in ninth grade graduate in 4 years. Offering credit recovery options is one strategy to deal with…

In 1997, Chicago implemented a policy that required algebra for all ninth-grade students, eliminating all remedial coursework. This policy increased opportunities to take algebra for low-skill students who had previously enrolled in remedial math. However, little is known about how schools respond to the policy in terms of organizing math…