Drawing on critical race theory, auto-ethnography, and resistant narratives, this article examines systemic forms of oppression that professors of color teaching at predominantly white institutions have been facing. The author incorporates in his analysis his experience as a faculty of color battling multiple forms of micro-aggression (Solorzano,…

This action research study examined the development of a professional learning community (PLC) among 20 preservice secondary teachers as they met regularly during a semester-long, field-based education course to share artifacts of learning from their professional portfolios. The PLC model described by Hord and Tobia (2012) served as a framework…

This project compared annual mandated assessment results for an urban charter school, two comparable urban schools and the encompassing urban district. Scores in grades three through eight in the target school were analyzed to determine the percentage of students scoring at proficiency levels three and four (scores of one and two are considered…

The success of some advocacy organizations in advancing their preferred policies despite questionable evidence of the effectiveness of these policies raises questions about what contributes to successful policy promotion. We hypothesize that some education-focused organizations are advancing their agendas by engaging media, with individuals who…

In this article we draw on the experiences of a diverse group of 34 first-generation college students, collected over a year, who served as peer mentors to minority and Latina/o high school students enrolled in four Title I (low-income) high schools in the Southwest U.S. The article identifies the successes and challenges of implementing an…

This qualitative study focused on how teachers in a small, urban elementary school in Pennsylvania negotiate their beliefs and instructional delivery the classroom. In the area of literacy instruction, there has been an increased reliance on Core-reading programs in elementary school. Classroom teachers, caught in the middle, are charged with the…

At the core of every teacher is a set of beliefs and knowledge regarding teaching and learning. As a teacher develops her expertise, curricular practices are refined and self-efficacy is enhanced. Teachers possess varying degrees of efficacy and perceptions that impact literacy instruction within their classrooms. Yet, often times they are…

The International Baccalaureate (IB) programme utilizes an inquiry-based multi-disciplinary approach and focuses on the teaching of critical-thinking skills. The IB programme is growing at a rapid rate within the United States, with the overall number of IB schools having more than doubled in the last five years. The purpose of the present study…

There has been increasing interest in using of web-based surveys--rather than paper based surveys--for collecting data on alcohol and other drug use in middle and high schools in the US. However, prior research has indicated that respondent confidentiality is an underlying concern with online data collection especially when computer-assisted…

This study uses data from the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HLS:09). Parent responses to the Parent Involvement survey, given as part of the NCES study were considered, along with their child's socio-economic status (SES) and self-reported level of mathematics course enrollment during…

This study investigated effects of background music on writing performance of nine 6th grade students with learning disabilities at one suburban public elementary school in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. A single-subject A-B-A design was utilized, and results from graded writing prompts with and without background music over 21…

Non-individualized (so-called "random") drug testing in public schools presents issues of Constitutional law on both the federal and state levels, particularly with regard to citizens' freedom from "unreasonable searches and seizures." The trend toward increasing acceptance of such testing by the courts (and particularly the U.S. Supreme Court)…

Students in China are being shouldered with more financial responsibility for their higher education. This shift impacts individuals across the economic spectrum in different ways. This paper assesses recent trends in China's higher education tuition and fees, and the implications on educational equity. Results document substantial increases in…

Comprehension of text is developmental in that it begins with a child's ability to listen and make sense of language. Though listening comprehension is often the predecessor towards reading comprehension; some children maintain difficulties in listening comprehension throughout schooling and into adulthood. This quasi-experimental study…

Teachers are catalysts to the success of high-stakes accountability policies, yet noticeably absent from previous studies is an examination of teachers' responses toward being held accountable for their students' performance on state-mandated, high-stakes assessments in low socioeconomic status (SES) school settings. An on-line survey instrument…