The article profiles a project addressing a central issue in reform-driven STEM education--the need to align educational experiences with real-world STEM. The interdisciplinary program aimed for authenticity by purposefully designing an authentic PBL project and incorporating STEM professionals as volunteer facilitators. These volunteers enhanced…

Preconceived expectations for one's behavior drive how people interact with their communities. Messaging via pop culture is a common source for citizens to learn about one community engagement tool: compulsory volunteering. Compulsory volunteering, like court-ordered community service and school-based volunteering, provides an opportunity to learn…

This study introduced action research to a group of 25 teachers in a K-12 school in Pakistan. The objective was to understand how teachers viewed their identity as teachers and how they perceived action research as a possible professional development tool. Data were obtained through three focused group interviews with 12 volunteers from the…

This evaluation study provides information about the implementation and outcomes of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program in West Virginia, from September 2015 through May 2016, in which 12,388 students participated overall. The report draws on information from online surveys of directors of thirty six 21st CCLC programs…

This exploratory study considers how and to what effect personalized and trauma-informed learning were implemented by one teacher at one continuation high school ("XHS"). There is growing evidence regarding the effectiveness of personalized learning in improving student academic achievement (Pane et al., 2015) but limited research into…

In recent years, collaboration between faculty and schools has widely drawn attention in teacher education. However, little is currently known about the impact of faculty-school collaboration on pre-service teacher (PST) learning in the field of ELT. For this purpose, this study aims to investigate PSTs' insights of the English Fest event in terms…

Rural communities can successfully integrate service learning into academic subject areas. In service learning, students develop a deeper understanding of academic subjects while engaging in meaningful service to their school or greater community. Barriers to implementing service learning in rural areas include lack of time, transportation,…

Tutoring--defined here as one-on-one or small-group instructional programming by teachers, paraprofessionals, volunteers, or parents--is one of the most versatile and potentially transformative educational tools in use today. Within the past decade, dozens of preK-12 tutoring experiments have been conducted, varying widely in their approach,…

A resource teacher of gifted students describes the role and benefits of mentors from the community. Examples are given of mentors' contributions to research skills, creative problem solving, and self-directed learning. In addition, volunteers help in the classroom and provide support during budget hearings. (CL)

The Lawrence Hall of Science implemented a two-phase project, Building Understanding in Language Diverse Students, to modify school group workshops and drop-in public programs to better support linguistically diverse students and visitors. As we applied language support strategies developed for the school group workshops to additional areas of the…

In March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic upended our country, leading to a hunger and education crisis like we have never seen before. This report reflects on the role schools play in supporting a culture of wellness; the opportunities, trends, barriers and reasons why schools have been the great equalizer in America, where the minority is the…

The number of homeless children and youth in the United States is on the rise (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2016). Between 2016 and 2017 in the Los Angeles County Homeless Count, there was a 41% increase in the number of homeless minors (The Los Angeles Service Authority, 2017). Education is key to bringing people out of…

The Families in Education Program, dedicated to nurturing a family-community-school partnership, provides this book for Wisconsin schools to use throughout the year to promote families and learning. The articles in this book contain ideas for developing and enhancing volunteer programs in the schools and for developing effective service learning…

In this article, Eric Schwarz describes how "Citizen Schools" are coming to the aid of teachers by adding a second shift of educators that make teachers more effective and happier, while also improving the outcomes of its students. Teaching fellows and volunteer citizen teachers could support the master and core teachers while also…

Teaching English to students, particularly non-English speakers, requires proper strategies and methods. By doing so, each teacher has his/her challenges. This study intends to unveil the emerging challenges faced by English teachers from non-native English-speaking countries (non-NESCs) such as China, Japan, Thailand, Senegal, Mongolia, Cambodia,…