Everyone--board members, parents, and staff--loves small schools, bur it's no secret that small schools cost more to operate, particularly if administrative and teaching staff cannot be assigned efficiently. If there is a silver lining in this dark contextual cloud, it's that political support for consolidating schools has rarely been better. The…

Many youth are at risk for failure in school due to various school, family, and community characteristics. To provide more support for youth at risk, school-based mentoring programs have become increasingly popular. However, this seemingly simple intervention is actually quite complex and must be implemented with integrity and fidelity. Although…

Applied Research Consultants (ARC) is a graduate student run consulting firm that provides experience to students in evaluation and consultation. An overview of this program has been compiled in order to serve as a model of a graduate training practicum that could be applied to similar programs or aid in the development of such programs. Key…

With a focus on the United States, this paper addresses the basic social indicators question: How are we doing? More specifically, with respect to children, how are our kids (including adolescents and youths) doing? These questions can be addressed by comparisons: (1) to "past historical values", (2) to "other contemporaneous units" (e.g.,…

Twelve empirical studies published since 1996 regarding the effects of gender on the supervisory relationship are reviewed. Each study was reviewed and critiqued in relation to its methodology, research design, critical findings, and limitations. The results of these studies indicate that (a) gender influences the openness and affiliation one…

Personalized learning models can give each student differentiated learning experiences based on their needs, interests, and strengths, including students with disabilities. Personalized learning can pinpoint specific gaps in student learning, identify where a student is on his or her learning pathway, and provide the appropriate interventions to…

This work starts with a brief overview of education in developing countries, to contextualise the use of the guidelines. Although this document is intended to be a practical tool, it is necessary to include some theoretical analysis of the concept of online assessment. This is given in Sections 3 and 4, together with the identification and…

Sara McAlister, in her article "Why Community Engagement Matters in School Turnaround," in this issue (p35-42) of "Voices in Urban Education," lays out the strong research base showing that family and community participation is a crucial resource not only for individual student achievement, but also for catalyzing and…

Ontario embraced a provincial lead improvement plan that was designed to improve its 5,000 schools by focusing on literacy and numeracy, improving high school graduation, and improving public support for education. Its primary strategy was developing networks of educators and building their capacity for growth.

The explosion of technology and information has resulted in major changes in education in the twenty-first century. School librarians have a vital role to play in efforts to ensure that students are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed and participate in the digital society of the twenty-first century. This role presents an…

In the context of rapidly changing classroom environments, it is crucial that teachers be able to make appropriate decisions. Those teachers who reflect on their practice, particularly while they are teaching (what Schon terms reflection-in-action), are best able to do so. It is the intent of this article to investigate the role of teacher…

The past decade has evidenced significant dialogue on faith-based campuses about the persistent gap between the increasing ethnic diversity of the student population and that of the faculty. While campus administrators and leaders acknowledge the need to address this concern through faculty development, there is a disturbing lack of successful…

A primary goal of all teacher educators is to provide preservice teachers with meaningful professional development opportunities that will help them succeed in making the transition into their own classrooms. Through these experiences, individuals develop the requisite knowledge and skills to become effective classroom leaders capable of…

Although teachers continue to implement an array of best practices, learners identified as unsuccessful according to criteria may lack engagement to succeed in the current curriculum activities. Even as teachers continue to apply best practices in the classroom, data does not support continued improvement of student engagement and achievement of…

This study investigated elementary teachers' observations of how a representative sample of achieving, average and struggling readers adapted the use of best practice comprehension strategies taught in the classroom as well as during instructional level guided reading time. A researcher-constructed strategy checklist was the instrument teachers…