America's K-12 public education system has experienced tremendous historical growth in employment, according to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. Between fiscal year (FY) 1950 and FY 2009, the number of K-12 public school students in the United States increased by 96 percent, while the number of full-time…

This report analyzes changes in public school staffing over time by examining data from the annual editions of the Digest of Education Statistics, which is compiled by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. The report's main part analyzes changes in public school staffing over the past generation, the fiscal…

In Russia, people are once more coming to realize that it is fundamentally impossible to develop a genuinely civilized society unless people are taught national, patriotic, civic, legal, moral, cultural, ethical, and universal human values. Once again, leaders on different levels have begun to talk about the necessity of going back to the…

Achieving 100% literacy is an important goal for many schools. Over the past 5-10 years, government legislation and federally funded programs such as Title I, No Child Left Behind, and Reading Initiatives, such as the Alabama Reading Initiative, have emphasized the importance of effective literacy instruction in order to achieve 100% literacy…

The importance of the principal has been found to be a critical factor in student and school success. School principal responsibilities traditionally encompass operations and management. However, many principals are unable to fulfill these expectations because of students' social and behavioral issues. Consequently, this qualitative study explored…

Many urban schools struggle to retain their best teachers because of challenging work environments, poor salaries, and ineffective school leadership. The additional requirements of the No Child Left Behind legislation for teachers to be highly qualified and the increased academic requirements of raising students to a proficient level in reading…

This descriptive study examined reading specialists in independent, private schools. The context of reading specialists in independent, private schools and their alignment with reading professional's standards was not previously identified. The purposes of this study were to determine how many independent, private schools employed reading…

All too often, the public perception of school administration is that it is a large bureaucracy diverting critical resources from instruction. According to "Answering the Critics of School Administration: What Are the Facts? Second Edition," by Nancy Protheroe, the data show otherwise. Six common misperceptions of school administration are…

Few chief executive positions rival today's academic presidency in the complexity, unpredictability, and stress-producing nature of the job. This article describes how board members can sustain the well-being of those who hold down today's demanding academic presidencies. Initiatives boards can consider include: (1) appropriate personal staff; (2)…

This small-scale pilot research project investigates the prevalence of Speech Language and Communication Difficulties in a sample of children attending a Youth Offending Service in the UK. Using the CELF-4, approximately 90% of the sample displayed some form of language difficulty and, overall, this population displayed mild to moderate…

This article features the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium, or HERC, website, which lists all positions such as custodians, administrators, and other faculty positions at colleges, universities, and research institutions throughout the country. HERC, based in Ben Lomond, California, uses its "dual career" hiring services to help couples…

This final chapter provides observations about institutional research in community colleges derived from the preceding chapters and the issue editors' own experiences. Taken as a whole, the chapters in this issue, as well as the editors' experiences, suggest several observations about institutional research in community colleges. These include the…

For the novice, the logistical challenges of an academic job search can be exasperating, especially when dozens of applications are involved. Getting things right (providing the correct materials, from CV to sample syllabi, in the style and form most sought by a particular search committee) and submitting the application on time (via sometimes…

With teachers under pressure to meet curriculum targets, responsibility for including students with behavioural emotional and social difficulties (BESD) in mainstream schools falls heavily on non-teaching staff. In this article, semi-structured interviews were conducted with special educational needs coordinators (SENCos) and support staff in a…

Many universities, colleges, and independent schools face the reality of geographically expanding alumni bases, likely combined with constant or decreasing budgets for alumni activities. Well-intentioned colleagues understand the potential power of a geographically diverse alumni network but do not always grasp the time and complexity associated…