Background/Context: Despite a history of racial oppression and degradation in U.S. schools, African Americans have responded to racism and discrimination in ways that promote educational attainment and school success. Many Black adolescents have been empowered to succeed academically partly because of their awareness of racist practices in…

Recent studies make one reality clear: While multiple factors can cause a low-performing high school to be in a turnaround situation, every high school that makes dramatic academic improvement has strong, effective school leadership. Turning a school around is no work for novices. It takes a skilled, visionary and proactive principal to pull apart…

"Louisiana Believes" embraces the principle that all children can achieve at high levels, as evidenced in Louisiana's recent adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). "Louisiana Believes" also promotes the idea that Louisiana's educators should be empowered to make decisions to support the success of their students.…

Planning and implementing major innovations in large urban districts can be a daunting and overwhelming idea--particularly when it comes to technology--due to real and perceived obstacles. Added to this challenge is the reality of the worst budget crisis in California history. When students are empowered by full access to technology, learning…

Harnessing insights from Brophy's (1999, 2008, 2010) notion of scaffolding students' appreciation of learning, this article tackles challenges to student engagement, especially among reluctant students, by exploring two classroom settings in which students' valuing of school content and activities supported their engagement and achievement. The…

Ethnic studies includes units of study, courses, or programs that are centered on the knowledge and perspectives of an ethnic or racial group, reflecting narratives and points of view rooted in that group's lived experiences and intellectual scholarship. Supporters say ethnic studies promotes respect and understanding among races, supports student…

Although there are an increasing number of youth development programs that aim to empower young people, there is a dearth of psychometrically sound measures that can be used to assess flexible youth-led organizing and participatory research approaches that tackle a wide range of social and community problems. This study developed and tested…

Efforts to improve student learning and success at community colleges are in the national policy spotlight. Colleges around the country are reviewing their institutional practices and gathering groups of education stakeholders to design and then implement changes in advising, developmental education, programs of study and curricula, student…

While Latina/o enrollments in higher education are on the rise, more than half of these students enroll at a unique institutional type, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). As Latina/o enrollments in higher education increase, the number of HSIs and emerging HSIs also increases. Knowledge is presently limited on the Latina/o college choice to…

Academic analytics helps address the public's desire for institutional accountability with regard to student success, given the widespread concern over the cost of higher education and the difficult economic and budgetary conditions prevailing worldwide. Purdue University's Signals project applies the principles of analytics widely used in…

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, standardized test scores have revealed that the U.S. public education system has been unable to adequately address improvement of academic achievement. For 20 years, educators have been promoting professional learning communities (PLCs) as a solution to improving K-12 academic achievement.…

This paper reviews the research on youth empowerment in seven child welfare programmatic areas. A lack of studies specifically focused on the empowerment of youth in foster care was found. Conceptual perspectives and existing data, however, suggest that the empowerment of youth in and transitioning out of care is essential and should be overtly…

The goal of this study was to examine whether the leadership style of principals affects teacher and student performance. The study includes an elementary, middle, and high school principal along with two teachers from each school who worked at schools that were in good standing from 2007-2011. Each school made adequate yearly progress (AYP) each…

This book provides everything administrators and teachers need to build service-learning programs that prepare students as engaged citizens committed to equity and justice. The author describes practical strategies for classroom teachers along with the theoretical framework so readers can deftly move beyond the book to a meaningful program for…

Between 2000 and 2007, six western states conducted individual impact studies using public school youth in grades five, seven, and nine. Common areas of study included: risk behaviors, leadership positions held, helping others, close relationships with adults, self-identity, character, self-confidence, and empowerment. The purpose of the study was…