This article shares the author's experience in writing a school improvement plan. The author and other department chairs were charged to develop a plan that would guide their decision making and professional development throughout the school year. They were also charged with developing department goals and working with individual teachers to…

In this article, the author discusses the most important thing she thinks school libraries should work toward. It is important for a school librarian to know and understand the mission of the school. It is also important to formulate a mission for the school library program. School librarians must think about and reflect on their own beliefs. What…

This paper critiques the view that the study of happiness is not a worthy scientific pursuit. The happiness set point and hedonic treadmill theories denote the complexity of increasing happiness levels due to genetic limitations and adaptation, however, there is mounting evidence to suggest that with the use of appropriate measures and specific…

As educators actively engaged in various aspects of public education in Texas and other states and countries for half of the 20th century, the authors have been both supporters and critics of US schools. In the process of observing and actively working with public school leaders, their critical concerns have steadily grown from an emphasis on…

This article argues that the Council of Europe's European Language Portfolio is capable of supporting the implementation of language learner autonomy on a large scale. It begins by explaining what the author understands by "language learner autonomy", then introduces the European Language Portfolio and explains how it can stimulate…

Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, has served as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), since 1992. He is coauthor of "Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males" (1998) and "Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women" (2001). Under Hrabowski's leadership, the…

Religious practice dramatically decreases in college and students' positions on hot-button religious/cultural questions move appreciably to the left. There's no doubt that college students are on a quest for meaning. In this article, the author reports on new data that reveals unequivocally the decline of religious practice among college students.…

Applebaum acknowledges the importance of the questions that Jackson raises and also clarifies some claims that Jackson mistakenly attributes to her. Applebaum queries Jackson's identification of "unreasonableness" with ignorance and cautions that a concern for students becoming "reasonable" must not preclude the possible costs to those who must…

This article deals with the issue of how to establish an authentic community of inquiry. I propose the introduction of a distinction between two stages of the community of inquiry: the stage of an emergent community of inquiry and the stage of an established community of inquiry. Further on, I propose an analysis of the structure of intentions and…

Moving from young adulthood to her experiences as a nontraditional student at Pace University, Rivera chronicles her path to independence in this poignant essay about determination, support, and sacrifice. Evoking powerful images, she introduces the people and forces that served to inspire, recharge, and steady her resolve to succeed in her second…

Beginning teachers face many challenges and difficulties; as a result, one-third will leave the profession in the first three years and nearly half will be gone within their first five years in the profession. The challenge facing university teacher education programs is to fix the hole in the bottom of the bucket and find strategic new ways to…

This article presents an interview with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. In this interview, Duncan talks about the goal for his work leading American schools and how merit pay, charter schools, and mayoral control would improve student learning.

The purpose for this article is to explore the juxtaposition of legal expectations, conflicting community cultural values, and the role of the superintendent in these connected but often conflicting issues. The authors explore several issues through the lens of Gay-Straight Alliance clubs, the "Equal Access Act," and the role of the…

What is most striking about the efforts of colleges and universities to recover from the repercussions of the global financial crisis is the extent to which many are determined to frame the moment as an opportunity. Much of the discourse surrounding the response of academic institutions to the recession, however, has been couched in the context of…

This article presents an interview with Mark Wilson, the principal of Morgan County High School and the 2009 MetLife/NASSP National High School Principal of the Year. In the interview, Wilson shares his experiences in taking his school to the next level. When asked how he determined what would take his school to the next level, Wilson states that…