Integrated STEM education seeks to build deep connections between science, technology, engineering, and math. Contextualized lessons give students greater access to these content areas and can heighten engagement. Great parallels can be drawn between liberal arts philosophies and integrated STEM education. This paper explores how one teacher team…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Race to the Top (RT3) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) have piled up federal mandates into a "perfect storm" for Georgia teachers. This study considers the impact of this storm through the eyes of 23 Georgia teachers. A tidal wave of federal mandates leaves teachers overwhelmed and skeptical about…

Too often teacher professional development (PD) is focused on mainstream K-12 learners, even as US schools become more culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD). This theoretical paper provides guidance for centering professional development on the margins. The three conclusions are distilled from robust experiences with middle and high school…

This paper describes several innovations to an early field experience emerging from a community, school, and university partnership focused on a middle school serving diverse students from low-income neighborhoods. With the primary goal of utilizing teaching candidates to provide direct academic, social, and instructional support to the middle…