The focus of this First Look report is on base-year contextual data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09). This First Look is intended as a companion to the report, "High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09): A First Look at Fall 2009 Ninth-Graders (NCES 2011327)" (ED521115), which focuses on the mathematics…

"Newcomers" are English learners who are new to the United States and arrive with limited or interrupted formal schooling. These students have below-grade-level literacy skills in their home language and do not speak English. Newcomers' arrivals to the middle school and high school classrooms often present a formidable "what to…

The Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) is sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education and is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. TFS is a follow-up survey of selected elementary and secondary school teachers who participated in the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is the…

The theme for the 58th annual conference of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) was Bridging Cultures Through Literacy. In the first section of the Yearbook, Parker Fawson's presidential address captures the unique nature of ALER and its role in his professional development, and then moved beyond to capture the changing…

This article considers how the private finance initiative, a contract for infrastructure, affected teachers' perceptions of efficacy, job satisfaction, and morale at an urban secondary school in the United Kingdom. Qualitative data collection techniques, including unstructured observation and semistructured personal interviews, were utilized to…

As well as being important for school mathematics, spatial thinking is a big component of advanced mathematical studies too. As Jones (2001:55) points out, "Much of the thinking that is required in higher mathematics is spatial in nature. Einstein's comments on thinking in images are well known. Numerous mathematicians report using spatial…

Teachers play a key role in the identification and training of talented mathematicians, and their attitudes are important in improving math instruction for gifted students. We surveyed secondary mathematics teachers from South Korea, Turkey, and the United States. These teachers completed a survey instrument called the Teachers' Judgments of…

As curriculum standardization escalates, teachers' agency in relation to teaching to student diversity takes on increasing importance. This article draws from an international study that investigated the multicultural and antiracist teaching practices of 15 English teachers in two racially diverse schools, one in the United States, the other in…

Most students in America can graduate from high school without ever analyzing a piece of art. Perhaps these students will take an art history or an art appreciation course in college that may incorporate a few references to literature and history. Math or science connections will most likely remain entirely absent. Why do we treat art analysis…

This article deals with a survey of technology skills levels, integration of instructional technology in high school classrooms, with both American and Chinese high school teachers. The purpose of the survey is to understand the integration and technology skills of these teachers. The similarity in the use of instructional technology between…

The purpose of this cross-cultural study is to investigate comparative students' problem behaviors and classroom behavior management strategies for students in urban public schools between teachers in the United States and Korea. This study incorporated data collected from two different teacher self-reported survey questionnaires, the Student…

This report presents findings on the numbers of public school students and staff in the United States and other jurisdictions in school year 2008-09, using data from the State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education of the Common Core of Data (CCD) survey system. The CCD is an annual collection of data that are reported by state…

The purpose of this study was to explore enhancers and inhibitors that impacted 4 secondary physical education teachers to make changes in their programs. An interpretivist approach was used to understand the physical educators' change process. Data were collected from document analyses, participant information sheets, interviews, discussion…

The author presents a social studies lesson that uses a commemorative coin to encourage understanding of the Monroe Doctrine. The international factors surrounding the formation of the Monroe Doctrine are discussed along with the implications and limitations of the document. The lesson provides quotations from the Monroe Doctrine, discusses how…

The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers' beliefs on classroom behavior management strategies for students in urban public high schools between teachers in the United States and the Republic of Korea. This study incorporates data collected from teacher self-reported survey questionnaire, which is the Attitudes and Beliefs on Classroom…