Enrollment from online programs has become increasingly important to the fiscal stability of colleges and universities. Given the pivotal role program directors hold in maintaining academic quality, recruiting, and retaining students in online programs, there is a remarkable lack of literature available about their work and how their work is…

This study tracks the progress of one Iowa school district over the course of three years through its implementation of a Teacher Leadership and Compensation (TLC) model, designed in response to a statewide TLC system initiative. A survey administered at baseline and at the conclusion of each of three pilot years measured teacher leadership…

The Every Student Succeeds Act gives states greater flexibility in designing educational policy, but questions remain about whether and how states will use this opportunity to design truly innovative new policies to support higher levels of student learning. The authors describe how educational leaders in four states--California, Iowa, New…

In keeping with the theme of this special issue, "Looking back, Moving forward," the present article describes how Iowa is moving forward with its Teacher Leadership and Compensation (TLC) System. First implemented in school districts in the 2014-2015 year, the TLC System is designed to attract and support new teachers; make available…

Science/Technology/Society (STS) as a reform effort has been active in Iowa for three decades. A program called Iowa Chautauqua has evolved over the four decades to promote K-12 STS teaching in Iowa's 300 school districts. This is a study of how teachers have become Teacher Leaders of the reforms and lead other teachers who enroll as new teachers…

The Boone Hope Foundation has given away over $130,000 in gift cards, rent checks, and eyeglasses--all targeted to help students with emergency needs related to food, clothing, shelter, and healthcare in its rural Iowa community. This is the story of teachers from a typical Midwestern school--relatively small and certainly not affluent--who have…

There has been a wealth of research examining learning environments as one of the variables that contributes to academic success for students studying science. A constructivist learning environment has been explored as one way to assist students in achieving greater success with science learning. There is a lack of research concerning how and if…

The purpose of this study is to describe how 24 elementary and middle school teacher leaders analyzed standardized achievement test scores, utilizing four different approaches: comparing to the norm, analyzing trends, correlating data, and disaggregating data. The analyses were conducted in order to effect positive change in student learning and…

In this article, we describe the implementation of a teacher leader program at the University of Northern Iowa designed specifically to address the needs of a nearby urban school district (i.e., to increase their school leadership, to complement district-wide initiatives in assessing and improving instruction, and to close the minority-achievement…