U.S. employers are struggling to find qualified applicants across a range of career sectors. In 12 career areas--including healthcare, computers and mathematics--demand for workers exceeded available supply by a total of 4.4 million job openings in 2016. This gap threatens the economy, undermines the innovation and competitiveness in many of the…

States across the country are urgently building and initiating systems to improve schools, including those identified as low-performing under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). With their state ESSA plans approved by the U.S. Department of Education in 2017-2018, state education agencies (SEAs) are moving forward to carry out the vision,…

At Tamassee-Salem Elementary School in South Carolina, teacher Anna Durham likes to have data conferences with her third graders. She creates a simple graph of their MAP® Growth™ interim assessment scores with past and current scores, along with a future goal. She believes talking about goals--and how they will get there together--helps to engage…

In an effort to ensure that all students in grades K-12 received the appropriate supports and services to meet their full potential, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) employs the Intervention Assistance Team (IAT) program to document individualized interventions implemented to support the child and provide, if needed, a bridge to…

"Authentic Project-Based Learning in Grades 9-12" provides a clear guide to design, develop, and implement real-world challenges for any high school subject. The author lays out five clear, standards-based stages of assessment to help you and your learners process the what, how, and why of authentic project-based experiences. You'll…

Nationally, over the past few decades, standards-based school reform has taken root as a policy initiative and instructional model. This has advanced the use of learning standards and aligned assessments as a mechanism to bring consistency and clarity to public school curriculum and instruction, with the intention of raising student achievement.…

Driven 2 Teach is a privately funded program for history teachers in the state of Utah. The program emphasizes the importance of teacher travel to educate history teachers in the places where history happened. This study investigated the program's influence on participant gains in learning about history and how to best teach about the past, social…

Gestures have been shown to play a key role in mathematical reasoning and to be an indicator that mathematical understanding is "embodied" -- inherently linked to action, perception, and the physical body. As learners collaborate and engage in mathematical discussions, they use discourse practices like explaining, refuting, and building…

College affordability is a significant factor in student access, retention and completion. Tuition and fee rates are a major component of affordability, as is the availability of financial aid programs from federal, state, institutional and private sources. Strategically designed approaches to college affordability can better assist families in…

Traditionally, teacher salaries have been determined solely by experience and educational attainment. This has led to chronic shortages of teachers in particular subject areas, such as math, science and special education. We study the first long-running statewide program to differentiate teacher pay based on subject area, Georgia's bonus system…

How do you create an innovative and equitable classroom experience that prepares elementary students for jobs that don't yet exist while placing a critical focus on mathematics and science content and practice standards-all while meeting the demands of high-stakes testing? The answer to this question is Step into STEAM, by Sarah Bush and Kristin…

Student loans have become a cornerstone of democratized access to higher education. This dissertation contributes a novel approach to conceptualizing the student loan issue: students as consumers--both of college and of the student loans themselves. Through a mixed-method in-depth study of a graduating cohort at a public flagship university, I…

Research suggests that gains in executive function (EF) skills training are strongest when task difficulty increases progressively, yet findings on the effectiveness of adaptive approaches for EF training are inconsistent. This study compared the effectiveness of an adaptive vs a non-adaptive version of a digital game designed to train the EF…

Underrepresentation of both females and minority racial groups in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors contribute to an unbalanced STEM workforce. This was a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional survey research study utilizing secondary data analysis of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 public use…

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'…