Office discipline referral (ODR) data provide useful information about problem behavior and consequence patterns, social-behavioral climates, and effects of social-behavioral interventions in schools. The authors report patterns of ODRs and subsequent administrative decisions from 1,510 schools nationwide that used the School-Wide Information…

Frequently, parents, educators, and even government leaders express concern over the continuing violence, as well as the breakdown of discipline within our schools (Boulter, 2004). The purpose of this study was to examine if teacher attitudes influence policy and practice in establishing and enforcing middle school student discipline, and if these…

For schools, creating an appropriate learning environment is critical. Edwards (2008) said "an improper learning environment strikes at the heart of the school's purpose" (p. 1). School discipline is extremely important because positive strong learning conditions are critical to student success and disciplinary problems are a continual…

This study reports new evidence for the dimensionality and validity of the Learning Behaviors Scale in samples of Head Start children. A sample of 900 former Head Start children enrolled in public kindergarten and first-grade classrooms was studied using modern techniques to analyze item responses represented as ordered categories. Findings from…

The nature of the American academic workforce has fundamentally shifted over the past several decades. Whereas full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty were once the norm, the professoriate is now comprised of mostly non-tenure-track faculty. In 1969, tenured and tenure-track positions made up approximately 78.3% of the faculty and…

Over the period 2001-2011, the number of applications for university places increased by 17.8%, or just over 37,000. At the same time, the number of offers increased faster in percentage terms (20.5%), while absolute growth was slightly smaller at just under 35,000. As demand for higher education has grown, there has been a trend towards Science,…

This study was designed to investigate the factors that affect master's student persistence in the United States. More specifically, this study explored whether the following factors: students' background, institution's, academic, environmental and psychological influences, had a significant effect on whether a master's student persisted and/or…

The nature of academic development in contemporary universities has been a recent focus in the literature. Highlighting the diversity of practices that exist under its name, "academic development" has been described by some as an ambiguous project and a fragmented field, while others suggest a more coherent project, pointing out a near…

This study examined the validity of Selwyn's computer attitude scale (CAS) and its implication for technology-based performance of randomly sampled (n = 167) multidiscipline teaching faculty in higher education in Ghana. Considered, computer attitude is a critical function of computer attitude and potential performance. Composed of four…

To explore children's perceptions of their teachers' feelings in everyday classroom contexts, the authors conducted focus groups with New Zealand primary (elementary) school children to discuss what they observed about positive classroom teachers' interactional style and emotional behavior. Seventy-nine students between age 8 and 12 years, from…

Business communication instructors can face a unique set of challenges to maintain their credibility with students. Communication plays an important role in the instructor-student relationship, and students judge instructors' ability to teach communication based on their ability to practice what they teach. The authors' empirical study shows that…

This paper discusses the role of a writing centre in creating spaces for talk about and change in disciplinary writing pedagogy. It asks how collaborative partnerships between disciplinary academics and Writing Centre practitioners might be established and nurtured sustainably. Drawing on insights from two collaborations with academics in…

Problem based learning (PBL) in its most current form originated in Medical Education but has since been used in a variety of disciplines (Savery & Duffy, 1995) at a variety of educational levels (Savery, 2006). Although recent meta analyses have been conducted (Dochy, Segers, Van den Bossche, & Gijbels, 2003; Gijbels, Dochy, Van den…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Improving Teaching and Learning through Instructional Rounds (Lee Teitel); (2) Developmentally Appropriate Practice in the Age of Testing: New Reports Outline Key Principles…

In 2005, hurricanes Katrina and Rita forced many children to relocate across the Southeast. While schools quickly enrolled evacuees, receiving families worried about the impact of evacuees on non-evacuee students. Data from Houston and Louisiana show that, on average, the influx of evacuees moderately reduced elementary math test scores in…