As community colleges across the country look for ways to promote student success, the need for scaling effective approaches is critical. This guide builds on a framework of four phases of scaling developed in Job For the Future's (JFF's) previous publication, "Thinking Big: A Framework for States on Scaling Up Community College…

This article examines metaliteracy as a pedagogical model that leverages the assets of MOOC platforms to enhance self-regulated and self-empowered learning. Between 2013 and 2015, a collaborative teaching team within the State University of New York (SUNY) developed three MOOCs on three different platforms--connectivist, Coursera and Canvas--to…

This article reports on a study of teachers who have engaged in systematic research about their practice. It describes the inquiries of two urban teachers into challenges and dilemmas common to many who work with diverse groups of students. The accounts presented reveal how teachers are able to construct new knowledge about teaching when they…

"Next Generation Learning Models for English Language Learners" seeks to highlight the promising practices and trends in new designs to advance learning for English language learner (ELL) students. This paper is designed for practitioners, including educators and education leaders, who want to advance next generation learning models to…

In this paper, the authors draw on empirical data from CCRC's Scaling Innovation project to examine trends in developmental education instructional reform and outline a framework for reform adoption and adaptation. The paper's findings are based on two qualitative data sources: a scan of developmental education reforms that involved changes to…

Through ongoing rapid-fire changes in the nature of communications, the social, professional, and political landscapes of our time are rapidly transforming. But the prevailing paradigm in most schools and school systems is a relic of the industrial revolution. Schools and school systems must adopt a new paradigm for learning if they are to remain…

In 2010, Jean Stevens from the New York State Education Department addressed a group of NY state administrators and shared, "It is no mistake that inquiry-based learning is throughout the Common Core." That was a cornerstone cry for which only school librarians knew the significance. After years of fighting for turf as a poor fief, it…

Educators across the United States are facing more pressure to have more success, with more mandates, more testing, and more accountability and are being given less money and fewer resources to make it all happen. Essentially, schools are being instructed by the state and federal departments of education to make up a king-size bed with queen-size…

Our education system is in desperate need of innovation. Despite radical advances in nearly every other sector, public school students continue to attend school in the same buildings and according to the same schedule as students did more than a hundred years ago, and performance is either stagnant or worsening. One of the most important…

This case study analyzes and documents factors that affect teacher learning and instructional practices in connection to the design your own (DYO) interim or periodic assessment process at one newly developed high school in New York City. Examining these factors through Riggan and Nabors Olah's (2011) conceptual framework offers insights into the…

This article presents excerpts from a case study describing Angelica Dawson, a New York State music educator. Angelica makes improvisation a central part of her curricula in ways that transcend traditional offerings prevalent in American public schools. Qualitative research methods were used to document Angelica's work over the course of an…

This article is a compellation of my work with big ideas and my findings based on that work for the second semester of the 2006-2007 school year. I worked with three 11th grade students that have in the past struggled to pass the Global Studies Regents exam. The class was created as a RCT (Regents Competency Test) preparation course. The purpose…

Adopting a new technology is an important decision for many academic institutions. Colleges have had to upgrade technology or face diminishing enrollment as students choose to attend other, more responsive institutions. New and imaginative approaches to technology have been developed and implemented by faculty, support staff, and students to…

This article is about my experiences as a ninth grade history teacher trying to implement a "big idea" unit on ancient African history. My experiences as a first year teacher and also my experience in seeing this unit develop over three years are chronicled. I conclude that implementing a big idea strategy of instruction is possible in a…

Although the literature base is replete with ideas about how to develop and support rich social studies teaching, advocates have been unable to show a consistently positive effect. Good history teachers take no single shape. Grant (2003, 2005) suggests that it is the interplay of teachers' deep subject matter knowledge, knowledge of their…