An innovative position, a Student Success Coach, was created in response to a newly developed undergraduate-degree program on the recently established University of Minnesota Rochester campus. Student Success Coaches serve as the link between the academic and student affairs sides of the campus. They interact closely with students and faculty to…

In this reflective piece, an adjunct instructor narrates her experience with institutional efforts to encourage faculty to become better instructors through exposure to and engagement in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Institutions of higher education can find it difficult to draw faculty out of their instructional status quo. Of…

This article presents an interview with Wes Taylor, the 2011 MetLife/NASSP National High School Principal of the Year. In this interview, Taylor shares credit with the teachers and staff members at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, for the school's systemic and long-lasting improvement in instruction and climate. He mentions that the…

For any goal to be a "smart goal" it needs to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time sensitive. This is equally true for sustainability goals for educational facilities. Evidence abounds that "green strategies" greatly impact both the academic and operational performance of a school. Agencies from the U.S. Environmental Protection…

In most of the long history of the study of absolute identification--since Miller's (1956) seminal article--a severe limit on performance has been observed, and this limit has resisted improvement even by extensive practice. In a startling result, Rouder, Morey, Cowan, and Pfaltz (2004) found substantially improved performance with practice in the…

Abstract reasoning is critical for science and mathematics, but is very difficult. In 3 studies, the hypothesis that alternatives generation required for conditional reasoning with false premises facilitates abstract reasoning is examined. Study 1 (n = 372) found that reasoning with false premises improved abstract reasoning in 12- to…

The article tries to defend the thesis that our educational systems are not doing well (which is not at all original), that the philosophy of education, more often than not, accompanies, justifies and reinforces the malaise of the system (which is already more original), and that it should, without a doubt, question itself in order to know how to…

The use made of evaluation output is crucial for understanding the position and effectiveness of evaluation systems. This article examines the development of evaluation in the Italian university system from the 1990s onwards where serious problems have been and continue to be addressed in the use of evaluation output to improve academic activities…

This case study of a high-achieving, high-poverty school describes the school's leadership, culture, and programs that contributed to its success. Data were collected from two surveys (the School Culture Survey and the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education), observations at the school site, and interviews with school personnel. The…

A challenge that professional development coordinators and instructional leaders face is designing and implementing professional development that is the most effective for improving teaching and learning in their school. To determine what is the perceptions and beliefs of elementary teachers' value of and responses to their professional…

There has been a wealth of research examining learning environments as one of the variables that contributes to academic success for students studying science. A constructivist learning environment has been explored as one way to assist students in achieving greater success with science learning. There is a lack of research concerning how and if…

Secondary school administrators are increasingly finding themselves in the position of implementing Response to Intervention (RTI). This system of providing progressively intensive levels of intervention for the purposes of preventing academic failure and identifying children with learning disability may be useful at the secondary level. However,…

Without college-level learning, American workers simply won't have the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in today's global economy. The country's long-term economic recovery will rely on getting a greater number of high-quality degrees into the hands of a larger, more diverse pool of graduates. College and university governing boards that…

External quality audits are now being used in universities across the world to improve quality assurance, accountability for quality education and transparency of public funding of higher education. Some countries such as Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark have had external quality audits for more than a decade but there…

This study investigated the perceived factors that enabled an Alabama School Assistance Team (ASAT) to be effective in helping improve a low performing school. A case study was conducted with the ASATs and the Local Education Agency (LEA) site they served. Data were collected from interviews, documents and observations. The perceptions explored in…