The term 'international school' encompasses a broad array of institutions offering a range of different programmes. However, the differences between these programmes have scarcely been explored in the existing literature. This article focuses on three popular international high school programmes (Advanced Levels, Advanced Placement, and…

This empirical study analyzed data from 638 teachers and 11,800 students in low-socioeconomic status (SES) urban schools (and schools with urban characteristics) exploring associations of school, teacher, teaching, and professional development characteristics toward student performance on the revised Advanced Placement (AP) Biology and AP…

The institutional environment of U.S. school systems has changed considerably over a quarter century as standards and test-based accountability became central ideas in policy texts and discourses about improving education. We explore how U.S. school systems are managing in this changed environment by focusing on system leaders' sense-making about…

The institutional environment of US school systems has changed considerably over a quarter century as standards and test-based accountability became central ideas in both policy texts and discourses about improving education. We explore how US school systems are managing in this changed environment by focusing on school system leaders'…

Many students are passively engaged in mathematics content across the United States because they are in classrooms that use traditional instruction methods (i.e. lecture and guided practice). Calculus is a struggle for students because of the critical thinking, conceptual understanding, and problem solving required. Active learning has been shown…

This paper uses Advanced Placement (AP) exams to examine how receiving college credit in high school alters students' subsequent human capital investment. Using data from one large state, I link high school students to postsecondary transcripts from in-state, public institutions and estimate causal impacts using a regression discontinuity that…

Each year, many students take the Advanced Placement (AP) Music Theory Exam, and the majority of these students enroll in specialized AP music theory classes as part of the preparation process. For the teachers of these AP music theory classes, a number of challenges are presented by the difficulty and complexity of the exam subject material as…

The development of "international mindedness" is an established aim of international education and has recently gained prominence in national school systems. Despite its increasing salience, it remains an ambiguous construct and an understudied aspect of schooling. It is implicated in globalized educational markets and attempts to…

This article explored the effects of external agency on the establishment of professional learning communities (PLCs). The research was undertaken in the context of schools that have chosen to adopt the Primary Years Programme (PYP) of the International Baccalaureate (IB) worldwide. The study employed a two-stage qualitative sequential design…

This article analyses the flow-line around the methodology used inside an educational research process that was originally established to examine the expansion of the International Baccalaureate's Diploma Programme (IBDP) in England. This article analyses the research question, then assesses the research focus, aims and objectives. The article…

When projects are the spine of a course, they are systematically sequenced one after the other, and they do the heavy lifting of the course. They teach its core content and skills. The author has been testing this model of course design for several years, aiming for experiential learning that is tied to deep rather than superficial learning of…

This article reports on a study that asks how might an elections simulation influence students with strong polarizing political beliefs? The elections simulation asks students to take on roles as candidate teams, political party leaders, interest groups, and media outlets in a mock presidential election. Students not only learn about elections but…

The Advanced Placement (AP) program provides the opportunity for high school students to enrol in advanced level coursework in a number of subjects, and potentially earn college or university transfer credit. AP is owned, created, and administered by the nonprofit College Board, and many post-secondary institutions provide transfer credit or…

This annual report highlights information on school performance and improvement in Hawaii's public schools. The report profiles academic events, trends, and outcomes. Featured are tables and figures related to demographic, financial, and educational performance. Also, comparisons to other states with relevant characteristics similar to Hawaii are…

Multi/bilingual education has been found to have the potential to provide more equitable education for linguistic minority students; nevertheless, these students have not fully benefitted from it due to unequal power dynamics and English-dominant language ideologies. While bilingual programmes in secondary schools remain extremely rare in the US,…