America's schools must improve outcomes in special education. Students with disabilities remain 25 percent less likely than their peers to graduate high school despite the belief among researchers that 80 to 85 percent of students with disabilities should be able to meet the same academic standards as their peers. We convened leaders from cities…

This manuscript describes the comprehensive validation work undertaken to develop the Recognizing Effective Special Education Teachers (RESET) observation system, which was designed to provide evaluations of special education teachers' ability to effectively implement evidence-based practices and to provide specific, actionable feedback to…

In December 2017, the Smithsonian unveiled a new Strategic Plan. It expands on the five "Grand Challenges"--Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe, Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet, Valuing World Cultures, Understanding the American Experience, and Magnifying the Transformative Power of Arts and Design--by setting goals…

Digital mindfulness-based interventions (d-MBIs) present an unprecedented opportunity to share mindfulness training at scale. However, the feasibility of digital mindfulness training for high schools remains unknown. Using a one-group pre-post design, this feasibility study evaluated the adoption of a digital mindfulness course in a public high…

In 2018 the Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) conducted an evaluation of the Illinois Community College Board's (ICCB) program review process, focusing on the career and technical education (CTE) programs. The purpose of program review is to support community colleges in decisionmaking and planning as related to…

New teacher evaluation reforms in the state of New Jersey and across the country have put an increased emphasis on the role of classroom observations as a method to improve teacher practice. School leaders are expected to facilitate the observation process and provide meaningful feedback that leads to teacher engagement in professional learning…

One of the common comprehensively researched topics is instructional leadership because instructional leadership has been correlated to teacher improvement and happiness, student accomplishment, and school improvement. Investigating the influence of instructional leadership of elementary principals on elementary teacher efficacy in Mississippi was…

Spending on education accounts for just 2 percent of the United States annual federal budget of more than $4 trillion. That total counts all spending for Head Start, federal elementary and secondary services including Title I and special education, career and adult education, and student aid including Pell grants and student loans. That's just 2…

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) is the Department of Defense (DoD) agency charged with providing high quality education for military-connected students both domestically and overseas. DoDEA operates 164 schools located in eleven countries, two territories, and seven states and serves more than 72,000 students. The Blueprint…

In our session, we showcase work from a researcher-practitioner partnership between James Madison University, the University of Virginia, and Harrisonburg City Public Schools that is focused on developing a continuous improvement process to translate social-psychological interventions into teaching practices that enhance motivation and learning.…

The author defends the claim, based on her experience as a teacher in the Foundation Phase as well as on her experience as the educator of student teachers in this Phase, that a specially constructed intervention programme will improve Grade 1's learning in several key areas. She firstly show that such a programme is required, given the current…

Professional learning communities have long been considered a powerful form of collaborative professional learning, as the Learning Communities standard in Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning attests (Learning Forward, 2011). This focus on communities can engage teachers in ongoing professional dialogue and examination of…

A growing body of evidence shows that infusing sustainability into undergraduate courses and programs can simultaneously benefit institutional goals, student learning outcomes, and society at large. In addition to being a globally relevant and urgent topic, sustainability can enhance learning of disciplinary concepts and development of broad…

Visiting relationships is one of the religious customs of a Muslim in Islamic culture. It is one of the most ethical-legal strategies of Islam to self-improvement and strengthens social bonds. With emphasis on the tradition of Imam Reza this article tries to study the relationship of the above mentioned issue with livelihood and self-improvement.…

"Improving Schools: What Works?" is the theme chosen for this issue of "Educational Leadership (EL)," and this theme should help dispel just one of the myths that have grown up about school reform: that educators are stuck in the status quo and don't care to implement change. This and some other myths about school…