The COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant problem for K-12 education. To prevent the spread of the virus, the educational community mandated school closures shifting instructional practices from a traditional face-to-face model into a remote instructional model (Bailey et al., 2021; Bawa, 2020; Domina et al., 2021; Onyema et al., 2020; Wyse et…

Personalized Learning Environments (PLEs) are student experiences where the pace of learning and the instructional approach are optimized for the needs of each student. Standards-aligned learning objectives, instructional approaches, and instructional content (and their sequencing) may all vary based on learner needs and interests. Learning…

Emerging research points to the importance of developing the capacities of teachers to help their students to be creative risk takers and to learn from productive failure. Facilitating this creative risk taking in learners has been shown to require expertise and a degree of risk taking on the part of both teachers and educational leaders. This…

Different approaches are employed when teaching environmental issues. One approach, termed the "environmental scientific approach," perceives environmental education as part of life or earth sciences, providing factual, scientific knowledge. Another approach, termed the "environmental sustainability citizenry approach",…

A longstanding aim of education efforts to position students as knowledge constructors so they are engaged in the building and shaping their learning environment. Current education reforms situate student sense making around authentic science inquiries where students are engaged in the practices of science. In the science classroom, this means…

In recent years, community school (CS) reform efforts have been established and implemented as a method of realizing comprehensive school reform in under-performing school districts. This study investigates the impact of one CS initiative in a middle school on student academic and nonacademic outcomes over time and compared to a propensity score…

This dissertation explored the roles schools can play in the successful outcomes of large carnivore or keystone reintroduction projects. Schools are more than centers for knowledge acquisition--they connect their community and disseminate information quickly to a wide audience. This study took place in California's Eastern Sierra Nevada, a…

This study examines whether 3 teacher-rated aspects of school effectiveness differ across school segregation profiles in Stockholm, and to what extent these indicators are associated with the academic achievement of 9th-grade students. Analyses were based on 2 cross-sectional data collections performed in 2014 and 2016, respectively (147 school…

Now that many schools are developing curriculums thoughtfully linked to standards--including benchmarks for achievement--many teachers wrestle with this question: Can we still make room for individualized instruction? The authors, who have taught at diverse international schools in many countries, believe the answer is yes. They argue that under…

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to explore and analyze secondary school students' (8th grade) perceptions about school climate in three areas, namely: the physical environment of the school, the social environment and the learning environment Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire, which was designed and pilot-tested around the…

The impact of a one-to-one computing initiative at a Midwestern urban middle school was examined through phenomenological research techniques focusing on the voices of eighth grade students and their teachers. Analysis of transcripts from pre and post-implementation interviews of 47 students and eight teachers yielded patterns of responses to…

The Schools to Watch: School Transformation Network Project is a whole school reform model designed to improve the educational practices, experiences, and outcomes of low-performing middle-grades schools. Developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, the four-year project was funded in 2010 by a U.S. Department of Education…

The Full Service Schools (FSS) reform model is an inter-agency collaboration between the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), Choices, Inc., Insights Education Group and the DC Department of Mental Health. This comprehensive school reform model is based in the Response to Intervention paradigm and is designed to mitigate student academic…

Understanding people and school communities is complex. Facilitating helpful and meaningful change--at an individual or school-wide level--is challenging. As a clinician-educator and a socially and emotionally informed educator, we describe what we do and do not understand about School ABC. We suggest that at the school and individual levels,…

The California history and social science standards-based reform has been touted as the "gold standard" for state history curricula. But the standards, framework, and tests that constitute this reform provide inconsistent and contradictory criteria for teaching and assessing history and social science. An examination of the political…