Participation in high-quality preschool can improve academic, behavioral, social-emotional, and cognitive outcomes for students of varying backgrounds, including students from disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g., Andrews, Jargowsky, and Kuhne 2012; Barnett 2008; Camilli et al. 2010; Karoly and Bigelow 2005; Reynolds et al. 2007). However, some studies…

Research shows that participation in a high-quality preschool can improve young children's readiness skills for elementary school, positively influencing behavioral, social-emotional, and cognitive outcomes. However, some preschool program evaluations document that some initial benefits may not persist into early elementary school. To explore how…

Blueprints for education reform have become trendy. Over the last few years, President Obama, governors, chief state school officers, local superintendents' associations, policy institutes, foundations, and business leaders have formulated such documents to guide school improvement. This brief highlights: (1) the focus of current blueprints; (2)…

This qualitative methods study examined a rural North Carolina elementary school that implemented teacher learning walks as a method of professional development. Adapted from the practice of principal walkthroughs, teachers followed a protocol for collaboratively observing colleagues' classrooms and reflecting on teaching and learning. The…

Johnson C. Smith University, a historically black university in North Carolina, created a Case Manager Program for their Freshman Academy Learning Community. This case study describes how the program was designed, implemented, and assessed. Case Managers are neither faculty nor student affairs professionals yet they are an integral part of the…

In August 2010, the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) received a grant of more than $25 million from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program for a five-year study to validate its Leadership Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) model in three very diverse regions of the United States: rural North…

The Common Core initiative calls for implementing fewer, tougher standards for literacy instruction. Seen from a student's perspective, the standards ask a lot in terms of effort and focus. Educators have to ask themselves, How can they motivate students to care enough about what they read and write to put in the hard work necessary to meet these…

This dissertation presents findings from an ethnographic study of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) enrolled in a specialized postsecondary education program at a public university in North Carolina. Specifically, it discusses how 10 students engaged in postsecondary education activities and developed student…

For decades, classroom instruction was dominated by lectures, textbooks and note-taking. And for decades, students have often been bored and unengaged. They took notes and did what they had to do to memorize lessons just long enough to pass an exam. But short-term memorization does not help much in preparing students for college, advanced training…

Education is a $600 billion-a-year enterprise, but the investments states make in education will not benefit students unless they are physically and mentally present in the classroom. Too many students are not. In this report, the National Association of State Boards of Education asks policymakers to promote student engagement through a suite of…

Increasing disparities in out-of-school suspension and dropout rates have led a number of school districts to develop alternative models of education to include alternative learning centres (ALCs). Using an exploratory mixed methods design, this study explores dimensions of social inclusion among ALCs, located in the southeastern region of the…

This is the second article in a three-part series on reimagining the community college student experience, describing a new model for academic pathways, key design principles, examples from colleges leading the way, and implementation challenges. Community colleges are beginning to embrace the task of reimagining students' educational experiences.…

This study analyzed the perceptions of five high school English teachers of the efficacy of interactive word walls in high school classrooms. Through data collected during interviews and professional reflective journals, as well as the review of student artifacts, this article presents the themes that emerged from effective classroom teachers.…

MyTeachingPartner (MTP) is an interactive, web-based professional development format created at the Center for Advanced Studies in Teaching and Learning (CASTL) at the University of Virginia (Hadden & Pianta, 2006). The MTP model is based on the understanding that effective teacher professional development requires opportunities for teachers…

Self-reflective writing is one method of inquiring into one's inner experience of learning. But what aspects of self are honors students invited to reflect on when they are asked to write informally in their notebooks on what they've just heard or read? Are they asked to explore their "thoughts" and "feelings"?…