The Math Teachers' Circle (MTC) model is a widely implemented form of professional development that invites teachers to become practitioners of mathematics, thereby developing their fluency with mathematical practices. This article presents comparative case studies investigating the self-reported experiences of several MTC-participating teachers…

Faculty members have numerous competing demands and struggle to find time to write. Writing Accountability Groups (WAGs) were created to help faculty members establish sustainable writing habits by writing with increased frequency and for shorter session durations. WAGs meet one hour a week for 10 weeks and emphasize accountability to the process…

Every discipline has an existing canon -- seen in textbooks, scholarly journals, conference proceedings, etc. -- that explicitly outlines existing practice and thought. Recognizing the inadequacy of these canons, the current paper outlines an approach to classroom instruction that helps students move beyond these texts as they create and discover…

In the last decade, there has been growing interest in professional learning communities (PLCs) outside mainstream Western contexts. In this paper, we provide a narrative synthesis of empirical studies of PLCs in kindergarten to 12th grade educational systems in mainland China published between 2006 and 2015. The review reveals five major emerging…

After 12 years as a building administrator, the author became Executive Director of School Leadership in Littleton Elementary School District #65, Avondale, Arizona. The district created this position to focus on the professional and personal growth of building leaders while ensuring district initiatives were implemented with fidelity. The…

In recent years, nuclear security has gained prominence on the international security agenda. Driven by post 9/11 anxieties and the politicization of fears regarding nuclear terrorism, concerns in this area have spawned a wealth of initiatives, which seek to counter this threat. Principal among these have been efforts to promote nuclear security…

Next Generation Science Standards encourage science instruction that offers not only opportunities for inquiry but also the diverse social and cognitive processes involved in scientific thinking and communication. This article gives an introduction to Lave and Wenger's (1991) communities of practice framework as a potential way of viewing…

At its best, the assessment process can inspire meaningful and authentic conversations among faculty about their practice as teachers, about their students as learners, and about their hopes and frustrations with both. However, in the literature on assessment there is little attention given to how departments or universities can foster these…

This dissertation presents three papers, each focus on a different aspect of the nature of learning in a specific hybrid community of practice, an undergraduate Living-Learning Community (LLC). A hybrid community of practice is initially established to address an institutional goal, yet membership is voluntary and members have autonomy in…

The purpose of this program evaluation is to examine the effectiveness of one Communities in Schools (CIS) program within a Title 1 Suburban High School in the Southeastern United States. The areas of foci include student attendance, grade level promotion, and graduation rate during the 2016-2017 school year. The program evaluation was designed to…

Multi-stakeholder collaborative networks (MSCNs) centered around innovative problem solving have become increasingly popular. These collaborations seek to pool the resources of the various stakeholders in order to address their common issue. The importance of the collaboration members' awareness of one another's resources is the basis for this…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the community of practice model in providing professional development to improve K-12 teacher's knowledge, skills, self-efficacy with regard to the implementation of personal learning. The study also examined the extent to which the community created value for individuals and the…

This mixed methods study examined whether participation in a virtual community of practice (vCoP) could impact the implementation of new skills learned in a professional development session and help to close the research to implementation gap. Six participants attended a common professional development session and completed pre- , mid- , and…

During the past decade, states and districts have made significant investments in developing systems to measure teacher performance. The goals of such systems are to improve practice, inform professional growth, and ultimately improve student learning. In the very best of these systems, educators know the expected teaching standards and receive…

Standards-based grading is still in its infancy within North Carolina. At this time, only 12 of the 115 school districts have incorporated the standards-based form of grading into their system. As school districts across North Carolina look to implement different forms of grading to assess student learning, it will be important to look at the…