This article describes the response of 483 teacher trainees when asked their motivation for undertaking teacher training. There was no predetermined agenda, and the open responses were analysed into six distinct categories covering 93 per cent of responses. These included career-related reasons such as wanting a rewarding and challenging career or…

In this paper, we demonstrate that rapid cycling "Brassica rapa" (Wisconsin Fast Plants) can be used in inquiry-based, student ecological fieldwork. We are the first to describe age-specific survival for field-grown Fast Plants and identify life history traits associated with individual survival. This experiment can be adapted by educators as a…

When Susan Moore Johnson began studying the experiences of new teachers, she wasn't motivated by some mandate about highly qualified professionals or the latest data on turnover. Instead, the Harvard University professor was inspired by watching her own daughter, Erika, grapple with whether to apply to a traditional teacher education program in…

This report provides evidence that the first semester in community college is a pivotal point in students' academic careers. Students whose first academic experience in college is positive and successful are more likely to remain in school, and to sustain their aspiration to transfer to a four-year college. Those whose first experiences are less…

This paper looks at underlying patterns of school effectiveness through analysing a GCSE examination data-set over a period of ten cohorts (1993-2002) in one very large English school district. Both value added and raw score approaches were explored by employing different statistical multilevel models to examine time trends of school and pupil…

Which factors promote student transfer from California Community Colleges (CCC) to baccalaureate-granting institutions? How do community college practices support this transition? Which student behaviors and characteristics particularly facilitate their movement to four-year colleges and universities? The Research and Planning Group for California…

This study examined the impact of NISL's [National Institute for School Leadership's] Executive Development Program for principals on student achievement in Pennsylvania schools between 2006-2009. Roughly half of the NISL-trained principals started the program during the 2007 school year and completed it in the 2008 school year, whereas the other…

In this study, the authors examined the relationship of 1,128 sixth and seventh grade students' grades in four subject areas (i.e., math, reading, science, and social studies) and their scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills (TAKS) Reading, Math, and Writing measures for the 2006-2007 school year as a function of their weight…

Colleges can gain a better understanding of their students' progress by comparing themselves to peers. Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community College Count, this issue of "Data Notes" focuses on Achieving the Dream colleges that serve high percentages of Hispanic, black, and low-income students. This analysis reveals the noteworthy result…

There has been renewed emphasis on the vocational in recent policy documents concerning provision for the 14-19 age group. More open acknowledgement of the vocational/academic divide within English education has appeared alongside the creation of increased vocational opportunities for young people. Research undertaken for the Transforming Learning…

Dominant conceptions of the world infuse educational experiences for young people in implicit rather than explicit ways--through becoming, as Stuart Hall argues, "the horizon of the taken-for-granted". In this article we explore these horizons as experienced by New Zealand's neo-liberal generation, currently "in transition"…

This addendum describes the nature, rationale, and results of the second cleaning and revision of the National Longitudinal Study of 1972 (NLS-72) Postsecondary Education Transcript Files (PETS). This project, conducted for nearly 3 years, followed an initial cleaning and reduction in 1987, which came about as a reaction to the idiosyncratic…

Perhaps no facet of long-term care (LTC) research has received as much attention as the evaluation of community-based LTC demonstrations. Recent thinking has called into question the validity and policy relevance of the findings of these studies, yet their efforts will continue to receive strong financial backing. The time has come for LTC…

Although self-esteem (SE) has been studied across the life span and across social groups, few studies have focused on the changes in self-esteem within a social group. To investigate the cohort and gender differences in SE in three-generational families (child, parent, grandparent generations), 6 members of 47 families (282 individuals) completed…

Generational differences in the balance of power contribute to varying patterns of influence strategy use within cohorts of young, middle-aged, and older adults. The self-report Likelihood of Influence Tactic Use Scale was administered to 10 males and 10 females in each of three cohort groups to investigate the influence tactics used at different…