Youth returning to traditional school settings from non-traditional settings, such as alternative schools, face significant barriers to successful transition. After conducting several student focus groups with students at West40--a center in Illinois that supports students who are considered "at risk" for dropping out or have been…

Since the arrival of the first charter school in Minnesota in 1991, charter schools have become one of the largest movements in educational reform. In recent years, research has emerged that has compared the effectiveness of charter schools with their traditional school counterparts. The purpose of this study was to compare the extent of music…

Using a Bernsteinian theoretical framework, this study compares two American early childhood centres, one with a primarily progressive pedagogy (Frank Lloyd Wright Family Centre) and one with a primarily traditional pedagogy (Casimir Pulaski Centre), in high-poverty Chicago neighbourhoods to examine the effects of different pedagogic practices on…

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to determine the impact of the year-round education school calendar on the standardized test performance of fifth grade African American students, as measured by the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) in reading. The ISAT reading scores from two year-round education (YRE)…

Since the 2002-2003 academic year, the number of students attending and number of charter schools has grown. Yet, unknown are the comparative performance of charter schools as well as any factors, such as the market-based theory of competition, which may contribute to differences. Using geographic information systems and hierarchical linear…

In the era of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, school districts are under increasing pressure from policymakers to hold all students to high performance standards. In response, a growing number of schools are embracing the principles of student-centered learning (SCL). SCL is a contemporary approach that combines progressive and…

In 2009, the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) brief, "Alternative Certification Programs: Meeting the Demand for Effective Teachers," noted that each state had its own requirements for alternative certification, and while some states and school districts have become more open to alternative certification, other states are very…