This qualitative study focused on the insights of the participants in order to provide a more significant understanding of how they view their skills and abilities when providing mental health supports as a novice school counselor. A generic qualitative approach was used to answer the following research question, "What are the self-efficacy…

Superintendent Andres A. Alonso arrived in Baltimore in 2007 with a vision for improving the city's struggling schools. His vision included empowering school leaders and creating accountability for student learning through a series of reforms that center around a new system for giving resources to schools, called Fair Student Funding (FSF). FSF…

High-stakes tests are the most heavily weighted measures in accountability systems developed in response to No Child Left Behind. While some studies show high-stakes accountability being related to test score gains, others suggest these policies do not improve achievement and often result in unintended consequences. To understand mechanisms…

Gifted students have unique educational needs. Although gifted students are as varied as other students in terms of their learning styles and preferences, all gifted learners have exhibited unusual performance or potential and they have distinctive characteristics, shared by most of these students, which require effective responses from educators.…

Two years ago, only 150 students attended Holabird Elementary, then a K-5 school in the southeastern corner of this city. Competition from charters and from regular public schools in nearby Baltimore County had drained families from Holabird, a chronic underperformer. So when Andres A. Alonso, the chief executive officer of the Baltimore city…

The current study replicates work of Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Northeast and Islands. It describes dropout prevention programs in nine Mid-Atlantic Region (Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) school districts serving communities with populations of 24,742-107,250 (as of July 2008). All nine…

Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) represents the only chance for many Baltimore City residents to obtain a post-secondary education, find a job with a career path, and earn a sufficient income to support a family. BCCC is also a critical linchpin in Baltimore's ability to build a competitive workforce. Yet the college, with 7,300 credit…

Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) represents the only chance for many Baltimore City residents to obtain a post-secondary education, find a job with a career path, and earn a sufficient income to support a family. BCCC is also a critical linchpin in Baltimore's ability to build a competitive workforce. Yet the college, with 7,300 credit…