Education reform has been on a new path over the last 15 years; a path that leads to more accountability, more choice for students and parents, highly qualified teachers, as well as, best practices in instruction. In an effort to move along the path of reform and as a result of previous reform, the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA reviewed the field…

The "Life Skills and Leadership Manual" is designed to be used by Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts who work with youth worldwide to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes integral to three Youth in Development sector competencies: (1) Support healthy lifestyles and prepare youth for family life; (2) Prepare youth for…

The paper presents findings from 560 interviews with undergraduates on 10 campuses distributed across the US, as part of Project Information Literacy (PIL). Overall, the findings suggest that students use a "less is more" approach to manage and control all of the IT devices and information systems available to them while they are in the…

Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) is poised to take action today that will lead to serving all students more effectively. Although the challenges are significant, including deep budget cuts, the district made the strategic choice to look thoroughly at how resources are currently allocated and now has a foundation for making decisions that will…

In 2011, AISD worked with the nationally recognized New Teacher Center (NTC) to create a comprehensive survey to help the district to better understand how teachers and school staff feel about critical issues that can influence educator retention and effectiveness. This report provides a district summary of staff survey results. A separate report…

The primary objective of the concierge service at the University of Nevada, Reno is to keep students on track to graduate in four years. The Concierge is charged with helping students enroll in the classes they need, not necessarily want, to graduate. This one charge defines the operational criteria. The service is available to all students,…

The purposes of this study were, on one had, to determine the impact of a peer tutoring program on preventing academic failure and dropouts among first-year students (N = 100), from Civil Engineering, Economics, Pharmacy, and Chemical Engineering careers; while, on the other hand, to identify the potential benefits of such tutoring program on the…

Emotional intelligence in relationships can be developed and enhanced through the use of an assessment instrument within a mentoring or counseling relationship. The Relationship Skills Map (RSM) has been created for this purpose. This study concerns the validation of the Relationship Skills Map. Participants in this study included members of a…

This qualitative study examines the perspectives of adjunct faculty regarding the use of technology in the traditional (brick and mortar) classroom. Thirty-two semi-structured interviews were utilized to gain the perspective of the adjunct faculty members from a two year and a four year institution. Over the last thirty years the number of adjunct…

The dilemmas, struggles, and conflicts of international students are ongoing research topics across disciplines. Utilizing a small culture approach that understands the "making and remaking" process (Holliday, 1999, p.247) of second language users/learners, this phenomenological narrative study explores the experiences of five L2 Chinese graduate…

Researchers have identified effective practices that allow schools to "beat the odds" and close the reading achievement gap. Although identifying these practices is important, researchers have paid little attention to the work it takes to implement them. Through interviews with teachers who work at schools identified as beating the odds, this…

Past research has consistently shown that there is a relation between personality and academic performance, but much less work has focused on explaining this relation. The present study examined whether three aspects of homework behavior, namely homework time, procrastination, and learning strategies, mediate the relation between personality and…

Background/Context: Previous research has established the significance of academic study time on undergraduate students' academic performance. The effects of other uses of time are, however, in dispute. Some researchers have argued that students involved in activities that require initiative and effort also perform better in class, while students…

This report reshapes the field for expanded-time schools by outlining specific practices that can lead to dramatic increases in student achievement and preparation for success in college and the workforce. This report offers an in-depth examination of 30 expanded-time schools serving high-poverty populations with impressive track records of…

Objective: To determine whether self-reported discretionary time was associated with physical activity and uptake of a physical activity promotion intervention in a multi-ethnic urban sample. Methods: We examined the association of self-reported discretionary time with hours/week of leisure-time physical activity at baseline and physical activity…