For five years running, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has tracked states' teacher policies, preparing a detailed and thorough compendium of teacher policy in the United States on topics related to teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal. The "2011 State…

Innovative school-age day care programs include Tennessee's Extended School Program; Hawaii's After-School Plus program; San Antonio's Kid's Involvement Network (offering middle school supervision); Aurora, Colorado's state-licensed Year-Round School Recreation Plan; and Pomona, California's Child Development Program. These public school programs…

This Tennessee edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) 2009 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the third annual look at state policies impacting the teaching profession. It is hoped that this report will help focus attention on areas where state policymakers can make changes that will have a positive impact on…

Part of a larger research project involving the study of mathematics achievement of middle and high school students in Tennessee, this report analyzes said achievement in terms of school locale and the percentage of disadvantaged (pdisadv) students enrolled in the school. Schools were designated as Rural, Large Central City, and Other Nonrural.…

This article explores the integration of technology into community engagement and service-learning activities at Tennessee State University (TSU). We have used active learning experiences to develop action-oriented research questions that help both students and local community members connect theory with experience and thought with action through…

The Tennessee social studies state standards present a vision of every child matriculating into a civic-minded citizen armed with the six content (culture; economics; geography; government and civics; history; and individuals, groups, and interactions) and four process standards of knowledge (communication; data analysis; historical awareness; and…

School discipline is viewed as a national concern that is becoming more serious by the day. Practicing teachers, student teachers, and preservice high education students across the country are concerned with discipline-related problems in schools across the nation. Perceptions of discipline influence practicing teachers, student teachers, and…

Seventy-four students read passages from an individually administered test of reading comprehension (a subtest from the "Test of Dyslexia," a test of reading and related abilities currently in development; McCallum & Bell, 2001), and then answered literal and inferential questions. Students were randomly assigned to one of two…

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school principals' and teachers' perceptions of the current issues in middle school reading education and to identify the sources of information that these educators use and find helpful to keep informed reading issues. Participants were employed in the 14 middle schools of the Knox County School…

This report provides selected results from the 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for Tennessee's public-school students at grades 4 and 8. Since 1992, reading has been assessed in four different years at the state level (at grade 4 in 1992 and 1994, and at both grades 4 and 8 in 1998 and 2002). Tennessee participated in all…

This paper presents organizational strategies and implementation methods for conversion to middle school organization (scheduled to take place in 1988) in the Johnson City, Tennessee, school system. Carried out by the district in partnership with local institutions of higher education, the study focuses on what is educationally best for the child…

This study explored teachers' (N = 717) expectations of student behavior along school level (elementary vs. middle vs. high), program type (general vs. special education), and school type (high risk vs. low risk). Results indicated that all elementary and middle school teachers shared similar views regarding the importance of self-control skills,…

Compared students' identification with school relative to academic achievement and classroom participation among 1,335 White and African American students. Results found that African American and female students had higher levels of identification than did White and male students, respectively, but their positive feelings were not attributable to…

As a part of the teacher licensure program at the graduate level at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), the M.Ed. Licensure candidate is required to complete an action research project during a 3-semester-hour course that coincides with the 9-semester-hour student teaching experience. This course, Education 590 Culminating…

Charles Chance's 1982 study of the middle grades in the Knoxville Tennessee, City School System suggested the need to develop a system-wide concept, system-wide goals, and a system-wide organizational framework for middle schools. These issues were addressed in a study designed to assess the status of middle-grade education in East Tennessee and…