Story problems either bring students to a screeching halt or send them into a frenzied search for numbers and operations. They cause greater anxiety, still, in English language learners. These problems are often the nemesis of many a math teacher. This author grappled with this challenge in the context of teaching a series of lessons on integers…

In this paper, we describe a 30-month qualitative exploration of diverse teachers' identities in a high-poverty, bilingual, K-8 public charter school in rural eastern Oregon. First, we use the perspectives of saberes docentes and a situated view of teacher development to document the life histories of monolingual and bilingual teachers at Vista…

West Virginia University at Parkersburg uses a two-way emergency system as a baseline for emergency communications. The college has found that such a system, a key component of its safety and crisis management plan, can be integrated with other communication initiatives to provide focused security on the campus.

Motivation is an essential component in developing a love of reading in middle level struggling students. For these readers, novels in verse bridge the gap to more challenging pieces of literature. In this article, Title One students explored Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson and learned that they, too, are poets. (Contains 9 figures.)

In this forum, we summarize CRT's origins, tenets common to most CRT writings, and CRT's evolution. We discuss Yerrick's article "Negotiating White Science" with respect to certain CRT premises. Specifically, we use the CRT tenet of racism as emphasized in first- and second-generation CRT and CRT elements liberal racial ideology and voices of…

The list of issues confronting education leaders today seems to be growing longer, with school wellness being pushed to the forefront by the surge in childhood obesity rates. Whether walking the halls of the schools or the local shopping mall, it is easy to see why society needs to adopt healthier lifestyles. That is why more community leaders,…

The Collaborative Language and Literacy Instruction Project (CLLIP) is a model of professional development designed to help teachers incorporate research-based practices of literacy instruction, support mastery, and sustained use of these practices through coaching, and serve as a foundation for whole-school reform efforts. We describe the model,…

There is nothing like a good story to capture the imagination and help us engage with other people's experiences. This book is made up of fifteen such stories, written by young New Zealanders as they look back on their individual journeys from school to tertiary education. They come from rural and urban schools located mostly in economically…

There is no "typical" rural teacher. But wherever rural teachers are, they struggle against mighty forces, and they often struggle alone. This article provides a glimpse into the lives of three teachers in diverse, far-flung settings: Haralson County High School in northern Georgia, Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation…

Being an LGBT youth in America has never been a Gay Pride Parade, no matter the community setting. But most rural schools prove an especially unhappy and dispiriting place for kids whose sexuality or gender expression does not fit within community expectations. Those are the findings of researchers for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education…

Total technology immersion doesn't happen overnight, but with vision and determination, transformation can take hold and start to grow. Floydada Independent School District (FISD), winner of the 2010 Sylvia Charp Award for District Innovation in Technology, is a great example of what a district can achieve when starting with a modest tech…

This article describes a research group project that included students and faculty affiliated with Indiana University, along with secondary English teachers and administrators at several high schools in Southeast Indiana, as they developed and refined an approach to literacy instruction that embraces an expanded notion of literacy and supports…

China is a huge country with a large population. Providing equitable and quality "e-education" or use of ICT (information and communications technologies) for teaching and learning in elementary and secondary schools across the country is a national priority. This article briefly sketches the context in China and the challenges relating…

Aware of the increasing burden of fuel costs on their students, administrators of rural community colleges are looking for ways to help students stay on track with their studies even as their monthly transportation bills rise. Two common tactics are increasing the number of online courses and offering block scheduling that allows students to pack…

In many parts of the United States, there is a growing shortage of music teachers to take the place of the retiring teachers. This is most evident in rural areas. If music teachers are not available to fill openings, music positions are sometimes combined, spreading music teachers too thin and requiring them to possess multiple music…