Beginning with the 2000 and 2001 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has made technical documentation available on the worldwide web at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/tdw/. The web-based documentation is designed to be less dense and more accessible than prior…

This action research study explored if changes in the reading curriculum, specifically implementation of critical literacy approaches that acknowledge bicultural students, increase student learning as perceived by teachers and students in a Catholic elementary school, where students have been chronically performing at the lowest level in the…

This study analyzed the instructional practices of more versus less effective U.S. History teachers identified by a multiple regression model. Using surveys, observations, and focus-group interviews, the study found that the most effective teachers had a more complete package of rigor, relevance, and relationship strategies than less effective…

Learning communities, designed primarily to increase student persistence and academic achievement, are a common first-year initiative on university campuses. Assessments of learning communities frequently examine indicators that are easily quantifiable such as student persistence and academic achievement, but also examine factors thought to affect…

This study examined a host of variables the literature or focus groups showed to influence student motivation to achieve academically. Secondary school teachers in Doha, Qatar were asked to identify the five most and five least motivated students in their classrooms. They also were asked to estimate the degree of involvement the parents had in the…

Pre-service English teacher education students' perceptions of their education experience provide greater insight into developing an effective teaching strategy in English teacher education. The objectives for the study were: (1) to identify issues of interest or concern to the department and (2) to determine satisfaction levels concerning…

Language teachers are called upon to understand both the nature of students' intercultural competence and their own role in its development. Limited research attention has been paid to the relationship between the types of behaviour that language teachers model and the intercultural competence their students acquire. This article reports on a case…

Traditionally, the United States higher education system has been the envy of the world for its high quality, accessibility to millions of Americans, ability to train generations of skilled workers, and its contribution to creating the vast American middle class. Today, however, higher education is experiencing new pressures. A new generation of…

The Retirement Research Foundation of Chicago supported a collaborative to collect demographic data about working and aging, conduct a survey of older job seekers, and interview businesses in the region to assess their awareness and attitudes about mature workers. The 2005 project was titled the 60 + Success Project. A regional task force oversaw…

This paper describes an extended action research project run in a large secondary school over an 18-month period. The work was part of a wider strategy for change within the school. The data presented here describes some of the features of the change process and reflections on its impact. A key aim was to challenge and enable teachers to modify…

The National FFA Organization's Partners in Active Learning Support (PALS) is a program that utilizes high school members from FFA chapters as peer mentors. The purpose of this study was to examine needs of a sample of PALS advisors and mentors. An on-site pilot study was initially conducted, which included 3 individual interviews with program…

Challenged to re-consider his teaching practices, the author conducted a classroom research study designed to investigate and improve how he uses film to teach middle school students about history. He conducted this study in collaboration with his class of twenty-nine grade eight social studies students, who represented a range of ethnic…

Purpose: This paper explores "lessons learned" resulting from a process evaluation of a peer-led HIV/AIDS prevention programme targeting street children and youth in urban Uganda. The purpose was to explore aspects of implementation that either enhanced or hindered the effectiveness of the peer educator (PE) role.…

Focus group findings from 34 African American parents in an urban southern school district unmask subtle and concealed aspects of involvement. In contrast to formalized school-sponsored parent activities, involvement is described by participants as their encompassing a physical presence at the school to monitor their children's behavior, receiving…

This article draws on research with the student cohort in one of the early childhood teacher education programmes at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. It explores students' perceptions of a flexible and blended pedagogy, or "heutagogy" which combines online work with face-to-face lectures and tutorials. Research into teaching…