For more than 100 years, education communities have debated how best to educate the young adolescent. Proponents of both the junior high school model and the current middle school model have advocated for a specialized approach to educating adolescents that emphasizes the developmental needs of students. To accomplish this, various organizational…

Retaining novice teachers in a Northeast Florida county public school is an ongoing challenge. Research indicates that 14% of new teachers will leave the field within 5 years. The purpose of this case study was to investigate the major factors that contributed to this unique group of novice teachers' decisions to continue to teach at the school…

Recent studies suggest that the number of students pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees has been generally decreasing. An extensive body of research cites the lack of motivation and engagement in the learning process as a major underlying reason of this decline. It has been discussed that if properly…

The lack of an engaging pedagogy and the highly competitive atmosphere in introductory science courses tend to discourage students from pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. Once in a STEM field, academic and social integration has been long thought to be important for students' persistence. Yet, it is rarely…

The majority of research concerning student veterans has been conducted at the university level, with minimum analysis performed at the level where the vast majority of returning veterans attend school: the community college. While some research has discussed what services colleges and universities should offer returning veterans, little research…

Across the nation, large urban school districts are experiencing premature and rapidly accelerating deterioration of school buildings. The conditions of buildings and equipment, most importantly in classrooms and school support spaces, are deteriorating to the point of hindering the core mission of schools: educating children. This report is the…

With the rapid growth in online MBA programs, many traditional schools are seeking ways to differentiate their course offerings to avoid them becoming commoditized by the market. For some institutions this involves pulling away from traditional course offerings, and moving towards cross-disciplinary offerings. For many faculty members, this can be…

Transition from face-to-face to the online classroom is an enlightening journey. This is the cutting edge of a paradigm shift in K-12 education, and it is important for teachers to understand it. Many teachers may not receive a formal training program and should realize that it is not always an easy transition. Anything can happen, and never…

Over time, accountability measurements in education have paralleled measurement systems that originated in the business sector. Reform efforts, such as the Baldrige criteria, have continued to demonstrate that the business paradigm has offered precious little in the way of classroom success, despite the publicity and funding these movements…

In this paper we consider the challenges involved in evaluating teacher preparation programs when controlling for school contextual bias. Including school fixed effects in the achievement models used to estimate preparation program effects controls for school environment by relying on differences among student outcomes within the same schools to…

In 2000, the author took over the leadership of a large elementary school located in a small community in western Pinellas County, Florida. During her first year, the student population was around 950 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Today the school population is around 750 students, with 93 percent being white students who live in…

In November 1996, forty-five higher education technology leaders convened in Washington, D.C., to discuss the virtual university (VU). The Western Governors Association had announced establishment of the Western Governors University (WGU). As a result, VU initiatives were emerging from, or being contemplated by, almost every state-level higher…

Stressful life events are an important risk factor for psychopathology among children and adolescents. However, variation in life stress may be both stable and time-varying with associated differences in the antecedents. We tested, using latent variable modeling, a state-trait model of stressful life events in adolescence, and predictors of…

The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics, core beliefs, and activities of successful middle grades programs. Schools in Florida are held to standards of accountability under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the Florida System of School Improvement and Accountability, and the Florida Secondary Schools Redesign Act.…

School principals have complex jobs. To better understand the work lives of principals, this study uses observational time-use data for all high school principals in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This paper examines the relationship between the time principals spent on different types of activities and school outcomes including student…