This article is my personal and decidedly unapologetic Black meditation on and against the threshold concepts the Department of Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry, where I formerly taught has embraced as a means of addressing issues of social justice. Threshold concepts are a set of guide posts to enact change. Drawing on Black critical…

This article recounts the history of the Ohio School of the Air (OSA) as a technological innovation that demonstrates the promise and limitations of technology in education. The article situates the OSA within the larger progressive educational movement, detailing the OSA's rise and reasons for its decline. This article argues that, while the OSA…

Objective: We describe and analyze case investigation and contact tracing (CICT) efforts across Ohio's public universities in response to COVID-19 to distill challenges and lessons learned and suggest future opportunities for universities to mobilize in the face of emergent public health crises. Participants: Faculty, staff, and graduate students…

Something unprecedented is happening in Ohio. The state's economy and workforce needs are surging in what can be described as a growing COVID-endemic economy. As local, national, and global economies begin to rebound, it would be remiss not to ask whether preK-12 student success, as supported by excellent, innovative teaching and learning, is…

This study uses the concept of gamification to engage first-year students in the act of summary writing. The researcher argues that writing instructors should consider ways to gamify concepts in their curriculum to bring novelty and active involvement to course materials. The researcher uses Robson et al.'s (2015) mechanics, dynamics, and emotions…

In every school district across the country, every year, initiatives are adopted with the goal of improving the literacy performance of young students, and, just as frequently, these initiatives fail or quickly become passing fads. In this article, Rodgers reviews literature related to scaling educational innovations and describes challenges and…

The objective of this study was to test the effect of far-field industrial (i.e., man-made) versus biological analogies on creativity of business professionals from two organizations engaged in the idea generation phase of new product development. Psychological effects, as reflected in language use, were measured via computerized text analysis of…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) James Madison University: Reflections on Sustained Excellence in Assessment (Keston H. Fulcher and Elizabeth R. H. Sanchez); (2) Editor's Notes: Assessment Excellence Abounds! (Stephen P. Hundley); (3) The Promise of an All-in-One Assessment System for Student…

Textbooks are major organizers of Arabic language instruction in most Arab countries (Faour, 2012). Textbooks approved by ministries of education have traditionally guided teaching of content knowledge, skills, and values to be taught at each grade level (Faour, 2012; Sabella, 2014; Taha-Thomure, 2008). This research is a foundation study into the…

Creating Active and Reflective Educators (CARE) is a Professional Development School (PDS) partnership between The Patton College of Education at Ohio University and Federal Hocking Local Schools (FHLS) in rural Southeastern Ohio. This partnership, which won the 2018 NAPDS Award for Exemplary Professional Development School Achievement, is one of…

Bent on improving the teaching and learning experience, enhancing the productivity of researchers, and increasing the visibility of research outputs, libraries are redistributing staff, reallocating resources, and reorganizing internal structures, all to better partner campus-wide. Nowhere is the impact of this push for service innovation and user…

The purpose of the study was to examine the differences among significant changes in the practice of individual teachers. Seventeen US teachers were interviewed about the most successful change in their teaching career. The differences in teacher change were based primarily on the source and impact of the change. The sources of change were divided…

Urban universities are uniquely positioned to make powerful and lasting contributions to the grand challenge of food security. To better understand the various dimensions related to the university's role in food systems, this case study explores intentional linkages, significant developments, natural tensions, and emerging impacts at the Ohio…

Education is undergoing tremendous change. Technology and communication are central to this change, as speed and accessibility have increased exponentially. Learners' content knowledge is no longer as valuable as their "content navigation skills," and teachers' expertise is no longer beholden to didactic instruction. Education must…

Child- and family-serving programs in community-based settings wield tremendous power for improving the lives of infants and toddlers. In this article, three authors, from Ohio, Montana, and Sierra Leone, describe the principles of adaptive leadership and will share their real-world applications. Their stories explore critical questions for…