This article is a commentary on Australia's involvement in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests. It provides a rationale for Australia's participation in the PISA programme, the influences of PISA involvement on education policies and practices, and considerations and implications for school leaders and…

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] is a global policy organization that includes the United States and about half of the Western Europe countries. It administers international comparison tests, called Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), for 15 year-old students in Mathematics and other subjects. I…

This paper presents results from an examination of the relationships between high school (HS) faculty mobility and 2009-2010 New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) Math and Language Arts Literacy test results. Variables found to have an influence on standardized test scores in the extant literature were evaluated and reported.…

Participation in Advanced Placement (AP) classes and AP test-taking are widely viewed as indicators of students' college readiness. We analyzed enrollment in AP courses and AP test outcomes in Arizona to document disparities in students' access to rigorous curricula in high school and outline some implications of these patterns for…

This study examined the influence of student demographic variables (i.e., SES, race, attendance, and gender) and the school variable of placement in an inclusion setting on the academic achievement of general education students in grades 6, 7, and 8 (n = 1200) in an urban school district as measured by the 2010-2011 NJASK, the state's annual…

Paper screening in the pre-selection process of hiring teachers has been an established line of research starting with Young and Allison (1982). Administrators were asked to rate hypothetical candidates based on the information provided by the researcher. The dependent variable in several of these studies (e.g. Young & Fox, 2002; Young & Schmidt,…

This article presents a quantitative study utilizing HLM to analyze classroom walkthrough data completed by principals within 87 secondary mathematics classrooms across 9 public schools in Texas. This research is based on the theoretical framework of learner engagement as established by Argryis & Schon (1996), and refined by Marks (2000). It is…

Various theories of intelligence and personality (TIP) help explain the implicit beliefs that an individual develops about the functioning of his intelligence and personality. Such beliefs are defined "implicit" because the individual might not be fully aware of his or her belief system. The results from scientific research on the TIP suggest that…

Metaphors play a powerful role in arguments about education. It is common to say schools are broken, and that the school system is failing. Here I take the metaphor seriously and briefly review an historical episode where airplanes failed seemingly for no reason at the dawn of the jet age. The responses to these failures at first with public…

My purpose for this exploratory qualitative research was to gain insights into the perceptions of high school students in Italy who receive private tutoring in mathematics, about their experience and expectations. Little prior research from the perspective of the students has been conducted. Results suggest that some students use private tutoring…

The focus of this commentary is the possibilities for learning communities in dropout prevention and their interventionist role in this problem. Educators are urged to develop advocacy for adolescents at risk of dropping out and failing to graduate. High school dropout has been described as a national epidemic, yet urban youth continue to be…

The study utilized the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) to identify which characteristics of academically effective high schools are key determinants of students' academic readiness for college. A multilevel analysis shows that high school characteristics affect student preparation for college in four core subject areas:…

This article describes a cohesive theory of classroom management, developed by the author. This "three Fs" theory, predicated upon extant empiricism and scholarship vis-a-vis classroom management, was devised and implemented over several semesters within a field-based course at the University of Texas at Austin for preservice mathematics majors…

Recent research shows that a developmental school counseling program can be an important tool for improving student academic achievement and school community well-being. Yet, it appears that school administrators do not take advantage of the school counseling resource, often assigning school counselors to tasks that are outside of their area of…

In an effort to be comprehensive, schools often outline sweeping plans for improvement in multiple goal areas. Although well-intended, the efforts may be either too diffuse to have much impact, or so overwhelming that staff become immobilized. A school that chooses to proceed in too limited a manner, on the other hand, may run the risk of…