Most people associate summer with activities that have nothing to do with school, or, if they do, summer school comes to mind -- the remediation variety. Historically, summer school is for struggling students who need to relearn and firm up skills from prior years or for those required to retake a class. But what if it could be reimagined how to…

In the spring of 2020, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) reached pandemic status in the United States, leading to extended educational disruption and posing significant obstacles for teachers who were unprepared to teach in a virtual environment. Educators adjusted curricular materials, delivery, and assessment methods to accommodate and engage…

The increased complexity of today's work environment has made the need for soft skills, such as teamwork, communication, leadership, and problem solving, more salient than ever. Employers hire for these skills because it is increasingly the human resources that give organizations a competitive advantage. Therefore, academia must respond to these…

As additional states embark on the process of implementing four-year degrees at community colleges, they can learn from others' experience for help navigating the legislative, regulatory, and program approval processes. This brief uses examples from states currently offering bachelor's degrees at their community colleges to provide guidance for…

This article examines the initial journey of a middle school in South Carolina from a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curriculum to a STEAM (STEM + art) curriculum. This is the first of a three-year longitudinal study that investigated the perceptions of the effectiveness, relative importance, and sustainability of a STEAM…

In this paper we examine a faculty development structure that supports general education, specifically ePortfolio, assessment focusing on identifying the characteristics of engaged faculty. It is through this inquiry that we have developed an action plan that includes a system of best practices that can lead to increased faculty engagement.…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted in an effort to create a consistent set of standards across schools, districts, and states in order to ensure equality of educational opportunities for all students in the country. Educational reform through standardization implies that across thousands of miles and millions of students,…

This conceptual paper will discuss how faculty from The School of Library and Information Science at The University of South Carolina partnered with their university's Center for Teaching Excellence. This partnership resulted in the facilitation of professional development workshops and online tools for peer educators to better serve distance…

How might policymakers and educators utilize the work already being done as states redesign their accountability systems? The 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), brought much needed attention to the performance of traditionally underserved subgroups of students. Supported by greater flexibility under ESEA…

Community colleges and businesses have a shared interest in preparing students and existing workers to be successful in their careers. Community colleges seek to educate and train individuals in their community to have the knowledge and skills for current jobs and long-term career opportunities. Employers seek employees with both job-specific…

Higher education is ripe for innovation. While emerging technological developments such as digital courseware and mobiles apps have made it easier than ever for people to engage with learning resources, significant issues of access and equity persist among students from low-income, minority, single-parent families, and other disadvantaged groups.…

This study sought to determine the degree to which a body of successful supervision attributes actually exists in practice. Specifically, this investigation sought to determine: (1) To what extent are the twelve dimensions of supervisory practice from the 1989 ASCD Study currently being practiced among selected instructional leaders in two…

This article features Wade Hampton High School in Greenville County, South Carolina. Named for Wade Hampton III--a Civil War hero, a US senator, and a governor--Wade Hampton High School celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010 in a beautiful, modern, state-of-the-art facility built on the original school site in 2007. Although most of the 1,600…

Career-focused education offered through programs of study (POS), career pathways, and career and technical education (CTE) can provide students with opportunities to engage in career exploration and development, to establish career goals, to increase academic knowledge and skills, to test career preferences in applied settings, and to make links…

Within these last 20 years, professional development schools (PDSs) have emerged and become, for many, the sine qua non of teacher preparation and professional development. Over the past decade, as PDSs increasingly became a focus of reform efforts and a subject of conversation, regional PDS conferences proliferated. As a result of these efforts,…