Education, a fundamental privilege in America, has been deemed the great equalizer that should afford each individual access and opportunity (Hale, 2004). However, research has proven that for many students of color, the American dream is simply a nightmare. Many minority students have lagged behind academically, failing to graduate and failing to…

In her new book, popular author Ann Lewin-Benham draws on her intimate knowledge and experience with the Reggio Approach to present 12 "best practices" inspired not only by Reggio, but also by play-based and Montessori approaches to early childhood education. These practices are demonstrated, one per chapter, with scenarios from classrooms,…

Over the past decade, there has been a change in the citizen-government relationship. Citizens have moved from a traditional face-to-face communication with their government, to an electronic interaction through the use of e-government systems. Emerging technology has enabled citizens to communicate with their government remotely. However, trust…

The rationale for taking bold action on the nation's persistently failing schools can be summed up in one dramatic and disturbing statistic: half of the young Americans who drop out of high school attend just 12 percent of the nation's schools. Ending the cycle of failure at schools is a daunting challenge and a surprisingly controversial one.…

This monograph appears midway through the development of a book on the future of teaching, scheduled for publication in the fall of 2010. The book is a team effort, undertaken by 12 accomplished educators from across the United States, who have agreed to systematically study and speculate about public education and the teaching profession in the…

This study highlights the efforts of a U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools Partnerships in Character Education Program grant awarded to an Appalachian region state education agency to study the effect of the integration of character education models into rural schools. More specifically, this study focuses on data…

Representative democracy relies on the informed trust of the citizens. School board members serve their communities at a crucial place, governing large sums of money and the future of the community's children. Without the informed trust of the citizens, this enterprise will fail. Trust may be lost directly, or through inattention to detail. One of…

In an era of declining resources, higher education institutions are marshalling efforts to respond and remain sustainable. For small private college and universities with non-selective admissions criteria and limited resources, this is a particularly challenging period. The relationships between faculty and administrators play a key role in how…

This article draws on research undertaken with a Local Learning and Employment Network (LLEN) in the state of Victoria, Australia. LLEN are networks that were implemented by the state government in 2001 to undertake community capacity building through which the outcomes of young people aged 15-19 in education, training and employment would be…

School-based learning depends on teachers' capacity to engage with each other around central issues of teaching and learning. While such collaboration is readily welcomed by some educators, others remain wedded to an "independent contractor" concept of teaching. Supporting teachers to view themselves as team members and to perform effectively as a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore ethical challenges and dilemmas that exist within admissions systems at colleges and universities in the USA. Design/methodology/approach: Although the issues considered herein are examined primarily from the perspective of admissions officers, this paper also considers the viewpoint of prospective…

Purpose: By examining data from interviews with students in the Upward Bound (UB) Program (a federally sponsored program that provides academic support to students at risk preparing for college entrance), this study seeks to strengthen understanding of the stages of trust in educational organizations that serve urban youth and in so doing provoke…

Trust facilitates individual and organizational learning, and is often misunderstood by organizations although they must continuously learn in order to attain organizational goals and survive. Leaders of organizations often view trust defensively and their reactions may impede organizational learning This paper builds on prior research concerning…

University administrators can use information technology to drive innovation through focusing institutional purpose and improving business practices.

Under most circumstances, children (and adults) can safely assume that the testimony they hear is true. In two studies, we investigated whether 3-year-olds (N = 100) would continue to hold this assumption even if the person who provided the testimony behaved in an uncertain, ignorant, and/or distracted manner. In Study 1, children were less likely…