This paper serves as the introduction to the State Children's Cabinets and Councils Series, a set of reports intended to capture and organize the decisions and experiences of more than 20 children's cabinets and councils and present them against an emerging set of expectations about what the public and policy makers could and should expect from…

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) enabled the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to develop increased visibility among leaders shaping the development of the Internet. It also provided a mechanism for ARL member institutions and others to engage in partnership strategies to develop projects that would bring digital content and…

This narrative describes collaboration among librarians, writing program coordinator, and professors on an information literacy task force. Their attempts to infuse the University's curriculum with information literacy are described. Authors define the term, explain its history with three professional organizations, and describe processes for…

In a 2012 paper for the Center for American Progress, "The State of Evaluation Reform," Patrick McGuinn (Drew University) identified the opportunities and challenges facing education agencies in Race to the Top (RTTT) grant-winning states as they prepared for the implementation of new teacher evaluation systems. The 2012 study undertook…

A few years ago, in "Student Success in College (SSiC)," the authors profiled twenty colleges and universities that were unusually effective in fostering student engagement and success, defined as better-than-predicted scores on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and better-than-predicted graduation rates. These schools are…

Northampton Community College (NCC) responded to an industry identified need within the regional biotechnology community for entry-level production workers in biomanufacturing. In an effort to meet this need and create a transitional program of study for dislocated and incumbent workers, NCC partnered with the local Workforce Investment Boards,…

The author reports on a move by the online social-networking site Ning to start charging for its services which has raised worries that new fees could stifle educators' technological collaboration and creativity and touch off similar moves by other companies that provide comparable services heavily used by educators. Ning, which provides a…

Two well-known major frameworks to measure teacher performance and determine what a teacher should know and be able to do are undoubtedly the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and Charlotte Danielson's Framework for teaching. Charlotte Danielson has four major domains and National Board Certification (NBPTS) has five major core…

Business leaders, United States citizens, and American politicians continue to seek school reform as a means for providing the United States with a workforce consisting of employees who possess 21st century skills. The development of teacher transformational leadership and the use of distributed leadership practices are needed to create public…

This paper documents Pittsburgh's transformation from a typical, adversarial district-union dynamic to one of deep, substantive collaboration over the course of several years. This work has catapulted Pittsburgh to the vanguard of efforts to improve teacher effectiveness, and helped secure more than $80 million in philanthropic and federal grants.…

Only a quarter of the class of 2008 graduated from Alain Locke Senior High School in Los Angeles after four years. This was unsurprising since nearly 60 percent of the class had left Locke by the end of their sophomore year. A majority of Locke teachers--frustrated with the school's mediocrity--petitioned to allow charter management organization…

A growing number of American school systems are experimenting with innovative and varied methods of tying educators' salaries more closely to their work through differential pay. Differential pay means paying teachers differently based on their performance, their responsibilities, and/or their teaching assignments. For instance, it can mean…

Universities and schools are struggling with the critical issues surrounding teacher quality, student learning, and the gap between research and practice. This study employed a collective case-study design to explore the impact of leadership teams and school-university partnerships on teacher leadership, professional development, and overall…

This dissertation follows the trajectory of two football programs, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Pennsylvania, primarily from the perspective of administrators. It spans roughly forty years, from 1930 to the early 1970s. At first glance, these two schools may seem unlikely points of comparison, but viewed together they provide…

In fall 2001, the University of Pennsylvania opened a public elementary school a few blocks away from its West Philadelphia campus. With the opening of this school, Penn joined the list of colleges and universities that have recently gone into the business of operating elementary or secondary schools. In each situation, the university role differs…