America's regional comprehensive public institutions of higher education serve a unique role as the portal through which so many of the students and much of the nation's future workforce gain the skills needed to face the economic challenges of the 21st century. In support of the critical role that its members play in the development of their…

Evaluating students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (i.e., emergent bilinguals) presents challenges to evaluation teams, as distinguishing between a language disorder and typical second language development is more complex. The skills and knowledge required to do this task often exceed the level of training that evaluators…

By design, randomized experiments (XPs) rule out bias from confounded selection of participants into conditions. Quasi-experiments (QEs) are often considered second-best because they do not share this benefit. However, when results from XPs are used to generalize causal impacts, the benefit from unconfounded selection into conditions may be offset…

The literature on teaching controversial issues offers a framework to help teachers make appropriate judgments about which topics are worthy of deliberation and what information is reasonable to consider in a classroom. Wayne Journell describes four criteria for evaluating the openness of issues, explains why the behavioral criterion is neither…

The rapidly changing landscape of instructional materials in elementary education has involved both a wider range of available materials, particularly online, as well as increasing use of materials provided to teachers by other teachers on sites such as Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers. In this commentary, I outline three key shifts in…

Principal preparation programs devote very little time to showing future principals how to recruit, hire, support, and retain solid teachers. Yet school staff are a major part of every school budget and have one of the biggest impacts on student achievement, so hiring and retaining talent is key. The authors give specific actions and approaches…

College students use both formal and informal processes when making decisions related to course selection. They often get course-registration advice through formal on-campus "institutional" resources and off-campus "non-institutional" resources. In April 2016, Michael Dunlop and a student in his Data and Decisions Analysis…

In a socially just world, everyone would have an equal chance to become an enthusiastic reader. This article presents a detailed 'asset map' of a successful reading life and investigates three necessary components for creating readers: access, choice and time to read. Access to books, the chance and the requisite knowledge to choose reading…

Employee selection and group decision-making skills are critical for ensuring hiring is valid, meets organizational goals, and considers ethical and legal limitations. This exercise has participants role-play members of a search committee reviewing job finalists using shared and unique information. A novel twist to traditional hidden-profile…

While colleges and universities have been lauded for increasing student diversity, these same institutions have failed to achieve any comparable diversity among their faculty. In 2017, of the nation's full-time, tenure-track and tenured faculty, only 3 percent each were Black men, Black women, Hispanic men, and Hispanic women. Only 6 percent were…

Although part-time faculty have long contributed specialized expertise to colleges and universities, their role has shifted away from specialized expertise as they have shouldered an increasing share of day-to-day teaching operations at colleges and universities. Today, part-time faculty provide higher education institutions a flexible workforce…

In this article, the author explores why a school librarian's value should be wrapped up in books. First, reading is a foundational skill, and memories are built around who people are before and who they are after reading a book. School librarians get to be a part of that transformation. Second, books still make up the heart of a physical library,…

This report introduces the topic of assessment centers, an increasingly common personnel selection and development tool. A description of assessment center usefulness and their role in the selection of Austin Independent School District assistant principals and principals is also provided.

Nowadays, with increasing competitiveness in every field, securing a good job may be difficult. In this connection, students aiming to get into the best educational institution (EI) would give them their best chance of quality education and good job opportunities. Institutional evaluation and selection are complex tasks that must simultaneously…

Learning and innovation skills such as creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, and collaboration can be fostered through learning about STEAM role models. Using selected picture book biographies, teachers can help their elementary students visualize the experiences of these individuals as they developed and refined ideas…