Economics does not attract as broad or diverse a pool of talent as it could. For example, women comprise less than one-third of economics bachelor's degree recipients, significantly lower than in math or statistics. The authors present a case study of a new introductory economics course that enrolled 400 students, achieved nearly 50-50 gender…

The author tells of the experience of co-founding a group of male teachers of color within the Boston Teacher Residency program. The group's theory of action was that professional development focused on addressing the unique challenges of male teachers of color would help these teachers develop tools and strategies to navigate their school…

After three decades of scholarship describing why and how students ought to be taught to think historically, this study asks what happens when they are. Ten high school students from a school that incorporated historical thinking into all history coursework repeated the think-aloud task from Wineburg's 1991 study of the cognitive processes…

Good mentoring of graduate students influences their perseverance and success to completion, whereas bad mentoring can result in negative outcomes, including delayed degree completion or non-completion. What the authors refer to as the gray zone is that which falls between good and bad mentoring. Examples are partial mentoring or changes in…

In this practitioner research study, the author, a White social studies teacher, examined the intersection between his students' race/ethnicity and their experiences learning history. Using critical race theory as a lens, the author employed mixed methods, analyzing teacher journaling, classroom artifacts, and student reflections, as well as…

For some time now, it has been evident that the policies pursued by the United States to elevate the academic performance of students, particularly those who are most economically disadvantaged, have not produced the results that were promised or hoped for. This paper analyzes the efforts of schools and school districts to improve academic…

Improving teaching effectiveness is a hot topic for policymakers around the country these days. The gathering movement marks an important step forward in the ongoing effort to strengthen our nation's schools. In many cases, however, these efforts start and stop with improving outdated, inadequate teacher evaluation systems. Such approaches fail to…

This evaluation report presents implementation and impact findings to date regarding the Striving Readers grant as implemented by the Springfield and Chicopee Public School Districts. Any questions regarding this final report should be directed to the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) at the U.S. Department of Education. There…

"Inside Urban Charter Schools" offers an unprecedentedly intimate glimpse into the world of charter schools by profiling five high-performing urban charter schools serving predominantly low-income, minority youth in Massachusetts. Interviews, focus groups, and classroom observations conducted over the course of two years flesh out rich…

Basic features of a method of connection-making training, developed by Gordon and Poze, can provide a compact method of connection-making in varying mental age levels. Based on the premise that simple connection-making is innate and available to stimulation in children of the primary and kindergarten grade ages, this method was used on a target…