Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) educators are uniquely positioned to support the food recovery organizations (FROs) which address hunger-related needs resulting from food insecurity. Based on an online survey to measure how VCE educators have engaged with FROs and their experiences, respondents who previously supported FROs did so across…

Attrition among educators is a continuing concern in the area of special education. Job satisfaction has been associated with teacher burnout and teacher attrition. Many times, multiple educators work in a close environment creating a need for community in special education. The purpose of this study is to identify differences in job satisfaction…

Our department is in the early stages of a multi-year effort to nurture a culture that values active learning. We focus on the change process, including specific, pragmatic ideas from the literature on grassroots leadership and systemic change. We briefly review Wenger's work on cultivating communities of practice and use Wenger's evaluation of…

In the Emporium Model (EM), students work toward mastery thresholds using commercial instructional software in a computer lab staffed with instructors. This qualitative case study uses classroom observations and interviews to describe instruction and student behavior in EM classrooms for developmental mathematics at one college in the Virginia…

The voices of district leaders, principals, teachers, and students at two award-winning schools both encourage and challenge the reader to reflect on going green.

This paper reports results from a mixed-methods study about how college students engage with news when questions of credibility and "fake news" abound in the U.S. Findings are based on 5,844 online survey responses, one open-ended survey question (N=1,252),and 37 follow-up telephone interviews with students enrolled at 11 U.S. colleges…

Purpose: There has been a significant increase in the number of immigrant families moving to rural communities across the United States. Yet limited research exists that explores relationships between immigrant families and schools in these communities. Rural school districts are often challenged by insufficient resources, expertise, and…

This is the final external evaluation report prepared by SRI International for the Rural Math Excel Partnership (RMEP) project, an investing in innovation (i3) development project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Operated by Virginia Advanced Study Strategies, Inc. (VASS), the RMEP project included six rural school districts (LEAs) in…

Through generous support from the Kresge Foundation, Lumina Foundation, USA Funds, and Walmart Foundation, the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research on Education (CARE) teamed up with the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) and three AANAPISI campus partners--City College of San Francisco,…

In an effort to gauge receptiveness to Achieving the Dream, a major initiative to close achievement gaps at the nation's community colleges, the authors chose three participating colleges for an exploratory study. In each of the three communities, they conducted focus groups with relatively understudied stakeholders: full-time and adjunct faculty…

Stresses the community college's responsibility to prepare its students to participate in the global village and "internationalize" education. Suggests that instructors teach their students about underdeveloped countries, which contain two-thirds of the world's population. Points out that the community college system needs to find ways…

Looks at the failure rate of students in Accounting 211 in the Virginia Community College System. States that rote teaching styles that do not incorporate interdisciplinary and other diverse methods, do not take into account developing learning skills, and do not encourage active learning are doomed to fail. Makes recommendations for new…

Thirty postsecondary vocational technical instructors from five community colleges in Virginia were observed using the Flanders Interaction Analysis System for 30 minutes to detect their use of three of four behaviors determined to be enabling to learners. The additional enabling behavior of modeling was determined through 15 minutes of passive…

The author of this study used content analysis as the methodology by which to examine student evaluations of community college faculty. The study sought to answer three questions: (1) What is the nature of faculty evaluation of teaching effectiveness in the community colleges of Virginia and Maryland? (2) What is the nature of the student forms…

A survey of 42 faculty members in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) was conducted to aid in the development of a spelling course for VCCS students; 21 questionnaires were returned. The survey investigated causes of spelling problems, possible solutions, most common types of errors, curricula in which students have most spelling…