This article brings together ethnographies of two privileged educational settings in the United States--a private school in California's Central Valley following the progressivist Sudbury model, and an affluent New England boarding school's summer enrichment program. Each of these institutions serves as an alternative to and/or extension of…

With ongoing efforts in the United States to further develop the availability of computer science education in the public schools, federal, state, and local educational agencies are increasing efforts to encourage and promote the inclusion of computer science and programming skills in the middle school curriculum (Grover, Pea, & Cooper, 2015).…

The purpose of this article was to examine the use of a gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983) embedded in a coteaching framework (Heck & Bacharach, 2016) during the student-teaching portion of an alternative teaching licensure program. The goal was to improve an already existing student-teacher field…

Science curricula and teaching methods vary greatly, depending in part on which facets of science are emphasized, e.g., core disciplinary ideas or science practices and process skills, and perspectives differ considerably on desirable pedagogies. Given the multi-faceted nature of science and the variety of teaching methods found in practice, it is…

Each year, colleges around the nation select a common reading book for their incoming students or, in the case of Olin College of Engineering, for the entire college community. In 2017, the institution selected "Hidden Figures" as a reading meant to provide a common intellectual experience, illustrate the vigor and breadth of the…

This article examined the impact of a math-intensive summer academy for rising kindergartners (N = 17) enrolled in an elementary school with low socioeconomic populations. The program was designed to support student understanding of early number concepts. The research plan included the administration of the Texas Early Mathematics Inventory:…

Veteran staff members play a key role in a camp's success. They preserve camp culture, maintain traditions, and serve important roles in the peer-training environment that camps depend on. It is not surprising, then, that camp counselor retention is important to the business of camping. This study focused on five counselors from Jewish camps in…

Summer bridge programs often aim to build social connections for first-year students to ease their transition into college, yet few studies have reported on bridge programs successfully leading to these outcomes. We backward designed a summer bridge program for incoming biology majors to increase the comfort and connections among students and…

This article discusses giftedness from the inside out, focusing on what the differences mean to the gifted child's experience of life--the effects both their intensity and their cognitive abilities have on their inner experience and awareness. Mindfulness is especially valuable and important for the profoundly gifted child. Two programs that use…

A reform movement in the United States has focused on STEM education and 21st century soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. This spotlight on STEM instruction provided an opportunity to explore how K-14 STEM teacher participants perceived a Design Thinking Instructional Problems (DTIP) approach to…

The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative case study design was to investigate whether a summer bridge program, developed for first-year, first-generation students, is effective in retaining students throughout the first year of college. The general problem for private and public institutions was that student college retention rates have…

While the critical importance of summer reading loss is receiving more attention than in the past, not all summer reading programs are alike. Featuring three new chapters and extensive updating, the second edition of this groundbreaking book describes current research that confirms the importance of key elements in the authors' summer reading…

The goal of this comparative study was to examine the investment in faculty who were trained in culturally relevant pedagogy through the Unity Community Education Foundation Summer Learning Institute and the Garden Community College's homegrown Unity Mini-Summer Learning Institute. The study explored instructor development and institutional…

Over the last two years, the District of Columbia has aligned policy, resources, and research to strengthen its network of out-of-school time (OST) services. OST programs include afterschool, before, and summer programs for children and youth. In 2017, the District of Columbia (D.C.) Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) launched the…

The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) partnered with Umoja Community leadership to conduct a study that assesses statewide efforts to support Umoja program coordinators. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the technical assistance, resources, and trainings offered by the statewide…