This qualitative, improvement science, autoethnographic case study aims to examine a unique perspective on rural research through the lens of place-conscious leadership. With an identified problem of inequity in advanced-level course offerings, which resulted in lost student opportunities and student attrition to neighboring schools, the…

Personalized, competency-based learning efforts often take place in a single classroom or school, but not systematically across districts, let alone states. To address this dynamic and increase the scale of personalized, competency-based learning, KnowledgeWorks, an independent nonprofit organization that partners with education stakeholders to…

Like other states, South Carolina has experienced a shortage of educators at all organizational levels within its school districts. Given this dynamic and the relatively limited opportunities for practitioners to earn advanced degrees, several South Carolina institutions of higher education banded together to form a consortium that would provide…

In campus environments where resources are low and demand for student and institutional success are high, there is an increased need to build a collaborative network and team aimed at advancing advising practices that promote retention, persistence, and navigation of resources for students. This chapter illustrates the use of a team-based…

Ensuring that the benefits of education innovation reaches our students often requires bringing a culture of change into our education systems. Here, New Tech Network describes the work they do to provide support for efforts to bring change at the school district level.

"The Intelligent Donor's Guide to College Giving" is a signature ACTA publication designed to help higher education donors navigate the giving process. This third edition features stories behind gifts that are bringing intellectual diversity and academic rigor to campuses across the country as well as lessons from controversies over past…

While the United States is simultaneously recovering from a global pandemic and facing a national reckoning of racial injustice, the effects of COVID-19 continue to exacerbate academic and opportunity gaps that were decades in the making in K-12 systems. Most students are performing worse than before the pandemic. For students of color, there is a…

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the US public education system under great stress, resulting in quick, emergency changes. This stress has been particularly apparent in providing accommodations needed to Special Education (SPED) and English Learners (ELs). This paper reports on a qualitative narrative study based on interviews with K-12 educators…

State policymakers are in a unique position to enable the innovations in education necessary to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Working with 8,000 educators nationwide, the Aurora Institute identified the top 10 issues to address in state policy for transforming the K-12 education system: (1) Profile of a Graduate; (2) Innovation…

This researcher in this study examined the dynamics of organizational change in a rural, mid-sized school district in South Carolina, with a focus on socio-cultural factors that hindered effective implementation of reforms aimed at reducing educational inequity. The research was conducted through a series of 15 interviews with board members and…

The primary mission of the Call Me MiSTER (CMM) program, founded in 2000 and headquartered at Clemson University, was originally developed in collaboration with three private historically Black institutions to address the significant shortage of African American men teaching in K-8 public elementary school classrooms. In this article, we describe…

After years of working in the background to build the capacity of two-year college science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) faculty and the skills of technicians, the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program is gaining recognition as a source of STEM workforce expertise. The ATE program's effective mentoring of STEM educators and its…

The Southern Education Foundation's (SEF) Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) Consortium for Innovation and Change was instituted in 2011 to advance creative and promising initiatives that enhance institutional practice and student outcomes. In keeping with the SEF mission, these innovations specifically address educational barriers that…

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…

The total number of students in the United States attending online and blended schools is unknown. A reasonable estimate is between one and two million students, or roughly 2-4% of all students in the country. More than half of all states allow online schools that draw students across district boundaries; perhaps 350,000 students attend these…