In metabolic terms, publishing in the humanities is more couch potato than sprinter. An idea can take years to move from light-bulb stage to manuscript to finished book. Add another year, or two or three, before an author can expect to see reviews of that book in academic journals. That slows down an already glutted system. "It's just appalling…

The story of one University of Maine student's quest for a reasonably priced textbook reveals just how complicated course materials have become as the textbook industry makes its awkward transition from print to digital. The student is Luke Thomas, a senior majoring in business on the Orono campus, who last semester took a 250-person introductory…

What qualities are the essence of a top-notch university professor? "Enthusiastic." "Fun." "Interesting." "Cares about students." These attributes are listed in student reviews of America's number one professor for 2009, as determined by the Web site ratemyprofessor.com. Other students made these comments about the same instructor: "Very easy A,"…

"The Still Divided Academy" is a wonderful examination of the academic community that shows their inner workings by addressing a broad range of issues including: academic politics, tenure, perceived and real political imbalance, academic freedom, and diversity. Administrators, professors, and students have very different priorities, values, and…

What if every high school graduate of a given school district could go to college for free--not just those with good grades or financial need, but all of them? And what if this promise was guaranteed for decades? What kind of transformation might ensue, not just in the lives of the students themselves but in the communities that surround them?…

This Yearbook begins with the article representing Ellen Jampole's presentation to the CRA membership. In her presidential address, Ellen had the audience alternately laughing, considering, and reminiscing about how she and other academics understand and develop the knowledge they carry. She shares these same themes in her narrative, "Traditions,…

With the introduction of free primary education throughout Africa over the past 20 years, the demand for more qualified teachers has grown tremendously (Nilsson, 2003). Mainstream teacher education programs, typically consisting of 1-3 years of residence in teachers' colleges and some form of practice teaching, are unable to meet this…

Our increasingly globalized world is driven by shared knowledge, and nowhere is that knowledge more important than in education. Now more than ever, there is a demand for technology that will assist in the spread of knowledge through customized, self-paced, and on-demand learning. The Handbook of Research on Innovative Technology Integration in…

In the push to bring data to bear on all of the important education issues of the day, one essential fact is often overlooked: Not all indicators are created equal. This book provides a comprehensive approach for understanding how statistical measures of achievement are developed, evaluated, and interpreted. Given the extent to which…

This article describes how Texas' Closing the Gaps initiative pays close attention to the demographics of its growing minority communities. West Texas A&M administrators created the University Success Academy (USA) in 2004, which was largely funded through the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's First Generation College Student (FGCS)…

On March 13, 2009, Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska, an eminent leader in gifted education, was presented with a Festschrift, a volume of articles submitted by colleagues as well as former and current graduate students to celebrate her life's work and influence on the field. This volume is a free supplement from The College of William and Mary's Center…

A tuition-free, vocational, English as a second language (ESL) program offered at a large community college suffers from high attrition as well as student dissatisfaction with curriculum. The purpose of this quasi-experimental, longitudinal study was to assess the effectiveness of a specific ESL curriculum supplement as an intervention to…

This book shares the lessons learned by a large community of educational researchers and science teachers as they designed, developed, and investigated a new technology-enhanced learning environment known as WISE: The Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment. WISE offers a collection of free, customizable curriculum projects on topics central to the…

"Making Teaching Work" provides a down-to-earth, jargon-free book for teaching staff in universities and colleges, and includes reference to some of the best modern literature on assessment, teaching and feedback. By focusing on the learner in a variety of situations and contexts, the book explores how teachers can help learners to make learning…

The Educational Missions in the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936) had the purpose of making available, "especially to those living in rural areas, the feeling of progress and the means to participate in it, as well as in its moral stimuli and in the examples of universal progress, so that all the peoples of Spain, even those in remote areas…