Once leaders of one-room schoolhouses, principals' roles have expanded to instructional commanders over complex public-school structures (Hallinger, 1992). As the roles and responsibilities of the school principal evolve and grow, more support for school leaders is necessary. Coaching has been defined as a "supportive model for systems…

Preparing for high-stakes licensure exams can be daunting for teacher candidates and particularly intimidating for aspiring teachers who speak English as a second language, those with exceptionalities, and members of historically marginalized communities (Petchauer, 2015; Nettles et al., 2011; Tyler, 2011). University-based teacher educators are…

In this study, we examine how adolescents in a dual-language program negotiate intersectional identities through interaction, while engaged in small-group exploratory talk around the task of a collaborative-writing project. We recognize that while dual-language settings can help adolescents build relationships with ethnolinguistically different…

In 2017, representatives from the James Madison University Honors College asked if faculty members in the School of Communication Studies would develop a version of the General Education human communication course for all incoming Honors undergraduate students in the fall semester. The goal was to provide these students with a common cohort…

The purpose of this study was to compare the concert band assessments of male-directed ensembles and female-directed ensembles in the state of Virginia. Data included overall ratings of male-directed and female-directed bands (N = 3,229) that performed at District Concert Assessments held across the state in the past 6 years (2013-2018), which…

Group mentoring, an alternative to traditional mentoring, is dynamic, collaborative, and inclusive, yet it is underexplored in the literature. The peer mentoring group (PMG) phenomenon was researched through three educational leadership and administration polyads: (1) the Spirals, consisting of award-winning faculty mentors and novice scholars;…

Students often say they hate group projects, because they don't want their grade held hostage by someone else's effort (or lack thereof) and/or because they've had the experience previously of having to do other people's work for them. For the instructor, the challenge is to figure out how to provide students with the valuable lessons and learning…

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 impacted not only how students in our public and private schools were taught, but also how the professors prepared preservice teachers to become future teachers. Striving to build a community of practice among a new cohort of M.A.Ed-Elementary Education preservice teachers, faculty worked…

"Xtreme Reading" is a supplemental literacy curriculum designed to improve the literacy skills of struggling students in grades 6 to 12. The curriculum is primarily designed to help students improve their vocabulary, decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension skills. To ensure a productive learning environment, students initially learn…

"Xtreme Reading" is a supplemental literacy curriculum designed to improve the literacy skills of struggling students in grades 6 to 12. The curriculum is primarily designed to help students improve their vocabulary, decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension skills. To ensure a productive learning environment, students initially learn…

Activities that focus on already familiar concepts are good starting points when designing early childhood music lessons. The author uses teachable moments, a spider in the classroom and a rainstorm, to design interdisciplinary preschool group activities that teach music, math, and science concepts. Dynamics and tempo are the music concepts that…

James Madison University faculty team-teach an interdisciplinary mathematical modeling course for mathematics and biology students. We have used two different project-based approaches to emphasize the mathematical concepts taught in class, while also exposing students to new areas of mathematics not formally covered in class. The first method…

Art educators can "critique" senseless violence--mistreatment, exclusion, intimidation, bullying, violation, abuse, corruption, murder, and war--by unleashing the power of students' creativity. In this article, the author, sharing her philosophical context, discusses how art is preventative medicine with the power to transform the cycle…

Although collaboration is recognized as an effective means to address multifaceted community issues, successful collaboration is difficult to achieve and failure is prevalent. To effectively collaborate, collaborators must recognize the strengths and weaknesses within their own efforts. Using Mattessich and colleagues' work as a springboard, a…

Group counseling is an important treatment modality used to support clients in a variety of therapeutic settings. This article highlights the results of an exploratory study that examined site supervisory factors that predicted group leader self-efficacy for preservice school counselors. Results of multiple regression analyses suggest meaningful…