Background/Context: In the United States, the percentage of schoolchildren planning to become high-status professionals is grossly disproportionate to the percentage of such jobs comprising our division of labor. As in a game of musical chairs, it is not structurally possible for everyone to remain a contender. Focus of Study: Various adults who…

Background/Context: Media comparison studies aim to compare the relative effectiveness of different media at promoting educational outcomes. While these types of studies remain popular, they have been under attack for more than two decades. Critics of media comparison studies claim that continued studies are unhelpful because a great number of…

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The purpose of the paper is to explore an instructive case in which two potentially opposed reform theories converge on schools, in order to understand how productively or unproductively the two theories coexist. We attempt to answer the following questions: Can these two reform theories coexist,…

Purpose/Objective/Research question/Focus of study: This study describes and analyzes the student and faculty experiences of a "performance-based" preservice teacher education program at a large comprehensive university in the mid-Atlantic region. The aim is to understand the "hidden" curricular messages within the program and the ways that these…

Background/Context: School sanctioning policies that allow for external intervention into and closure of low-performing schools have become central components of the current educational accountability movement. Recent studies indicate that these policies compel principals and teachers to alter school and classroom practices in ways that target…

Discusses the need for and design of a National Service Pilot Project. (MC)

Background/Context: There is much rhetoric regarding "parents and teachers as partners" despite little evidence that such partnerships, as described in the early childhood education literature, actually develop. The literature on parent-teacher partnerships does not examine parents' and teachers' interactions or what those interactions mean to…

Background/Context: The essay provides a comprehensive review of work by economists and others in related quantitative disciplines on the transition of students to college. A particular emphasis is given to the role of price and financial aid although issues related to college preparation, access, and persistence are also investigated. The final…

Background: The Thinking Styles Inventory--developed by Sternberg and Wagner based on Sternberg's (1988, 1997) earlier theory of mental self-government--was selected for the research in order to assess thinking styles of student teachers. Another reason is that the theoretical constructs, as well as the inventory generated from the theory, have…

Background/Context: Culturally authoritative texts such as Text Revision of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual-IV [DSM-IV-TR](American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2004) describe literate impossibility for individuals with disability labels associated with severe developmental disabilities. Our qualitative research challenges the…

Context: Drawing from Ingersoll's (2001) study of teacher attrition, Huberman's (1989) study of the professional life cycle of teachers, and recent retention/attrition literature across the professions, this study seeks to make sense of the complexities of contemporary teachers' careers in light of changes in social and economic forces, the…

The research design commonly used by educational researchers is not inappropriate for evaluative research. But narrow or rigid adherence to traditional experimental design can lead to inadequate curricular evaluation. (Author)

Background: Educational research shows differences in experience, access, and outcomes across racial groups with some groups advantaged and others disadvantaged. One of the concepts used to explain racial differences, racialization, is a taken-for-granted term that is yet to be fully defined in the context of the school. We differentiate the term…

Background: Experiential learning has been posited as an approach to influencing preservice teachers' understanding of diversity and social justice. The research reported here examined the impact of a field-based experience in Poland focused on the Holocaust as it pertained to the beliefs and actions of 12 future education professionals. This…

Background/Context: In order to develop effective strategies for retaining able and committed teachers, it is important to understand how new teachers experience their work with their colleagues. A previous qualitative study conducted by the authors and others presented a conceptual framework for understanding new teachers' experiences of the…