The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of doctoral program specialists in Big Ten universities. Face-to-face interviews with 20 doctoral program specialists employed in institutions in the Big Ten were conducted. Participants were asked to describe their roles within their work place. The doctoral program specialists reported their…

In the age of the Internet, students are clamoring for immersive and participatory learning experiences, but how can teachers share autonomy without losing control of their classrooms? In an effort to address this important question, this article suggests three mentorship modes that educators can employ in order to effectively engage with today's…

Many pre-service teachers express a lack of confidence and preparedness to face the challenges of teaching reading in today's classrooms. The current study looks at whether Structured Participation Experiences (SPE) in reading increase pre-service teachers' preparedness to teach reading compared to more traditional unstructured field experiences.…

Reviews of research evaluating the impact of beginning teacher induction suggest that the mixed results may be due to the fact that the programs do not fully address school context. We examine how one induction program for urban teachers explicitly addresses teachers' specific schools and students to illustrate how context becomes the…

The need for sophisticated and highly skilled educators in urban schools is painfully obvious, even to the most casual observer. National and local test data demonstrate that students in urban schools are generally not achieving at the same levels as are their suburban and more affluent peers. Teacher educators in urban areas struggle with how to…

About a year after January 2004 when the author decided to pursue a doctorate through an online program, the author received an e-mail about an online teaching opportunity. This came about as a result of a meeting he attended where the interim dean of City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) discussed the growing demand for quality instructors to teach…

This brief presents findings from several Chapin Hall studies on vulnerable children and youth to raise the issue of what it would mean to improve academic achievement in underperforming schools. Vulnerable children and youth are those who experience crises or disruptions in their lives, often accompanied by parental absence or inability to meet…

Research has shown that students who like school have higher academic achievement and a lower incidence of disciplinary problems, absenteeism, truancy, and dropping out of school than do those who dislike school. Thus, one way to improve academic outcomes is to increase students' attraction to school. This study focused on the role of teachers in…

Using interviews of students prior to and during their retained year and of their teachers, this study examined 22 students retained under Chicago's Ending Social Promotion policy. It focused on the "intervention" of retention, including how teachers shaped the retained year for students and the nature and quality of instructional…

As part of its Priorities, Quality, and Productivity (PQP) initiative, the Illinois State Board of Higher Education asked institutions to address issues associated with faculty roles and responsibilities. This paper describes the statewide information collected, how the data are used in Board reports, and how improved data collection might…

This document, which was developed with input from 14 Illinois middle schools, is a comprehensive guide to planning and implementing career development activities in middle schools. The following are among the topics discussed: (1) background information (the rationale for and importance of career development; young adolescents' interests and…