In this commentary 26-year Ontario district teacher, Jeff Stickney, begins by surveying balanced approaches to large- and small-scale education reforms: contrasting linear alignment with more complex ecological models, drawing on recent work by Andy Hargreaves (2008; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2012). Next, through a brief case study of School…

Over the past five years, the Mathematical Association of America, with support from the National Science Foundation, has explored the teaching of mainstream Calculus 1 at the postsecondary level, where by "mainstream" we mean those courses that can be used as part of the prerequisite stream to more advanced postsecondary mathematics. We…

Background: The Whole Child approach and the coordinated school health (CSH) approach both address the physical and emotional needs of students. However, a unified approach acceptable to both the health and education communities is needed to assure that students are healthy and ready to learn. Methods: During spring 2013, the ASCD (formerly known…

Paraeducators are on the front lines in special education settings, providing support to teachers and students with significant disabilities and specific health-care needs. The important role they play demands efficient and cost-effective training in core skills. This study utilized a multiple-baseline across behaviors design to evaluate a…

This article provides an overview of some common challenges and opportunities related to cultural adaptation of behavioral interventions. Cultural adaptation is presented as a necessary action to ponder when considering the adoption of an evidence-based intervention with ethnic and other minority groups. It proposes a roadmap to choose existing…

Background: The increasing focus on education as an evidence-based practice requires that educators can effectively use data to inform their practice. At the level of classroom instructional decision making, the nature of the specific knowledge and skills teachers need to use data effectively is complex and not well characterized. Being able to…

The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of pre-service music teachers (n = 104) regarding school music teaching and the quality of their teacher training. Research questions were: 1) What are the perceptions of pre-service music teachers regarding skills and knowledge provided by their teacher training programs? 2) What aspects of the…

Too often school leaders, teachers and counselors invest their energies into preparing students for college. In today's society, that's not enough. Students must be prepared for multiple options after high school including gainful employment. This newsletter looks at ways schools can ensure more students are college and career-ready by creating…

Technology integration does not happen in a vacuum. It needs a plan. School leaders must oversee this plan and combine best practices for implementing effective instructional practices, sound curricula, and educational technology. Just as instructional leaders need to have a command of curriculum and instruction, educational technology leaders…

Poor outcomes for students with disabilities and others who academically lag behind their peers (e.g., those from high-poverty backgrounds) place pressure on educators to produce learner-ready teachers with the necessary skills to demonstrably improve achievement outcomes for all students (Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation [CAEP],…

For the past 20 years, countless reports have been issued calling for reform of undergraduate education to improve student learning, persistence, and graduation rates for students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. However, by many measures, recommendations in these reports have not been widely implemented. While…

We evaluate feedback methods for oral presentations used in training non-quantitative research skills (literature review and various associated tasks). Training is provided through a credit-bearing module taught to MSc students of banking, economics and finance in the UK. Monitoring oral presentations and providing "best practice"…

This study examined the digital and social media communication practices of nine urban universities including UMSL and compared those to known corporate best practices. The purpose of this study was to (1) research how these universities are using social/digital communications to engage with students and prospective students; (2) compare the…

Across the nation, school districts are intentionally integrating students of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds in order to increase access to educational opportunity, boost achievement, and prepare students to be thoughtful and collaborative citizens in our multiracial society. Some districts have developed interdistrict integration…

Though research on effective instruction in math word problem solving is prominent at the middle and secondary levels, much less work has been done in elementary grades. In this article, we review the research on varied problem-solving instructional interventions at the third-grade level for students across ability levels. Third grade was chosen…