This study leverages data collected from a study of Baltimore's 21st Century School Buildings Program to understand the potential of a school facilities investment to catalyze community development. We leverage a school-community partnership typology to examine partnerships at 21CSBP schools in three neighborhoods. We found that schools provided…

Charter schools are public schools, free and open to all. Like traditional public schools, charter schools are prohibited from charging tuition, must not discriminate in admissions or be religious in their operation or affiliation, and are overseen by a public entity. There is a growing body of research highlighting the superior performance…

The depth of work required and the relationships built in the process of agreeing to a conceptual framework for leadership learning are daunting. Whatever expenditure of effort that is required, achieving a comfortable consensus pays off in expanding the reach and the potential impact of leadership learning initiatives. The ILA "General…

The leaders of Networks for School Improvement (NSIs) have complex, challenging jobs which require constant learning and adaptation. To support these leaders, the contributors to this volume have developed a survey-based data visualization system--the Improvement Network Health Development (INHD) Information System--designed to generate insight…

Outcomes-Based Contracting (OBC) ties vendor payments to performance metrics, aiming to enhance accountability in public education. This study examines its implementation in tutoring services through the Southern Education Foundation pilot program. Interviews with district leaders and vendors reveal that OBC fosters collaboration, improves service…

By integrating real-world problem-solving with academic theory, service learning offers students the opportunity to engage in projects that address the needs of local communities while honing their creative and design skills. This learning approach fosters collaboration, critical thinking, and innovation, allowing students to apply design…

This study examined whether three renovated academic library spaces encouraged group work as intended. Hourly observations and a questionnaire documented group work use, space preferences, and suggested improvements. Compared to the three renovated spaces, significantly more group work occurred in an unrenovated space that was more open, spacious,…

Background: People with intellectual disabilities are rarely involved in research on quality of life. The study sought to answer the question: what do people with intellectual disabilities believe improves or hinders their quality of life? Method: Using an inclusive, accessible research design, 18 participants met in small groups to answer the…

It is critical to promote solid and long-lasting learning techniques in children and adolescents worldwide, including the most underprivileged ones, to improve various aspects of life. Consequentially, research should identify learning techniques that are beneficial for school-age children and that could be easy and inexpensive to apply in…

This article is personal and rather anecdotal as it is an attempt to sum up my experience of 30 years of Ofsted inspections. The key questions remain what they always were. How do you deal with the sometimes conflicting requirements of support and accountability, objectivity and impartiality, styles of inspection, reporting and grading? Perhaps…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the roles of quality managers at community colleges, their experiences balancing accountability and improvement and their insights into the future of quality assurance. Design/methodology/approach: This phenomenological, qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with eight community college quality…

Families are central to promoting communication in young children with disabilities with complex communication needs. Providing coaching on naturalistic language interventions (NLI) gives parents tools for independently intervening on communication across activities in the home. Both parents and professionals have limited resources, which requires…

The preparation of ethyl acetoacetate is a distinctive, century-old classic organic chemistry laboratory project. Ethyl acetate and sodium metal (sodium ethoxide) are reacted by Claisen ester condensation to produce the sodium salt of ethyl acetoacetate and then obtain the refined product by acidification as well as washing, drying, and…

Purpose: Creative practice doctoral education and supervision are fields in constant flux, as they require the flexibility to engage with organic and symbiotic processes and complex systems of inquiry. As interdisciplinary educators working across the fields of media and communications studies, cultural studies, art and design, the authors reflect…

Purpose: Following the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (RTSS) framework, the current study investigated the active ingredients in the modified semantic feature analysis (mSFA) targeting either noun or verb retrieval in Mandarin-English bilingual adults with aphasia (BWA). Method: Twelve Mandarin-English BWA completed mSFA treatment…