The monitoring of data within educational institutions is essential to ensure the success of its students and faculty. By continually analyzing data, educational leaders can increase quality and productivity in their institutions. Data Leadership for K-12 Schools in a Time of Accountability explores techniques and processes of educational data analysis and its application in developing solutions and systems for instructional concerns and next-generation learning. Providing extensive research covering areas such as data-driven culture, student accountability, and data dissemination, this unique reference is essential for principals, administrators, practitioners, academicians, students, and educational consultants looking to maximize their institution's performance.

In the continuing quest to turnaround the lowest performing schools, rapid and sustainable reform, or school turnaround, seems most elusive for secondary schools. Secondary schools are rife with challenges due to their wide-ranging mission and organizational complexity. With the continued emphasis on college and career readiness and the vast learning possibilities enhanced by technology, our third book in this series, Contemporary Perspectives on School Turnaround and Reform, focuses on rapid school turnaround and reform in secondary schools. In this edited volume, researchers and scholars consider the doubly perplexing challenge of school turnaround or the rapid improvement of the lowest-performing secondary schools. Although there is some evidence that school turnaround policy can impact student achievement scores, research across international contexts seldom identifies schools that substantially changed student learning trajectories and sustained them. Separately, many societies have found improving secondary schools a relatively intractable problem for multiple reasons, including school size and complexity, the micropolitics of teaching and leading within them, and cumulative widening student achievement gaps. In combination, there are almost no examples of low-performing secondary schools turning around. The chapters in this book begin to offer some hope about how policymakers, practitioners, and researchers might begin to reconceptualize how they engage in and undertake the work of rapidly improving low-performing secondary schools. The authors provide theoretical and conceptual advancements, offer lessons learned from both successful and unsuccessful initiatives, and address practical issues with potentially accessible ways forward.

Mastering Primary Physical Education introduces the primary physical education curriculum and helps trainees and teachers learn how to plan and teach inspiring lessons that make physical education irresistible. Topics covered include: * Current developments in physical education * Physical education as an irresistible activity * Physical education as a practical activity * Skills to develop in physical education * Promoting curiosity * Assessing children in physical education * Practical issues This guide includes examples of children's work, case studies, readings to reflect upon and reflective questions that all help to exemplify what is considered to be best and most innovative practice. The book draws on the experience of four leading professionals in primary physical education, Kristy Howells, Alison Carney, Neil Castle and Rich Little, to provide the essential guide to teaching physical education for all trainee primary teachers.

Comprehension Ninja Workbooks are ideal for supporting your child's learning at home. With bespoke non-fiction texts and hundreds of questions, they're packed full of comprehension practice with strong links to the National Curriculum. Created by teacher and bestselling author of Vocabulary Ninja, Comprehension Ninja and Write Like a Ninja Andrew Jennings (@VocabularyNinja), they're perfect for developing those all-important literacy skills at home and for boosting children's confidence in reading comprehension. Key features of Comprehension Ninja Workbook for Ages 6-7: - Covers popular National Curriculum topics currently taught at Key Stage 1, such as Rosa Parks and animal habitats - Features a variety of question types including true or false, fill the gap and multiple choice - Contains illustrations throughout and a fun ninja theme to engage children - Includes advice for parents and answers at the back of the book

Comprehension Ninja Workbooks are ideal for supporting your child's learning at home. With bespoke non-fiction texts and hundreds of questions, they're packed full of comprehension practice with strong links to the National Curriculum. Created by teacher and bestselling author of Vocabulary Ninja, Comprehension Ninja and Write Like a Ninja Andrew Jennings (@VocabularyNinja), they're perfect for developing those all-important literacy skills at home and for boosting children's confidence in reading comprehension. Key features of Comprehension Ninja Workbook for Ages 10-11: - Covers popular National Curriculum topics currently taught at Key Stage 2, such as climate change and the Battle of Hastings - Features a variety of question types including true or false, fill the gap and multiple choice - Contains illustrations throughout and a fun ninja theme to engage children - Includes advice for parents and answers at the back of the book

To provide the highest quality of education to students, school administrators must adopt new frameworks to meet learners' needs. This allows teaching practices to be optimized to create a meaningful learning environment. Examining the Potential for Response to Intervention (RTI) Delivery Models in Secondary Education: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a pivotal reference source for the latest perspectives on research-based intervention and instruction strategies to effectively meet students' learning requirements. Highlighting numerous topics such as professional development, progress monitoring, and learning assessment, this book is ideally designed for educators, professionals, academics, school administrators, and practitioners interested in enhancing contemporary teaching practices.

What is a charter school? Where do they come from? Who promotes them, and why? What are they supposed to do? Are they the silver bullet to the ills plaguing the American public education system? This book provides a comprehensive and accessible overviewand analysis of charter schools and their many dimensions. It shows that charter schools as a whole lower the quality of education through the privatization and marketization of education. The final chapter provides readers with a way toward rethinking and remaking education in a way that is consistent with modern requirements. Society and its members need a fully funded high quality public education system open to all and controlled by a public authority.

Exam Board: Pearson BTEC Academic Level: BTEC National Subject: Children's Play, Learning & Development First teaching: September 2016 First Exams: Summer 2017 Ideal for classroom or independent study, this Revision Guide with ActiveBook is the smart choice for learners studying for the externally assessed Units 1, 2 & 4 of the new BTEC Nationals in Children's Play, Learning & Development qualifications. The Revision Guide is accompanied by an ActiveBook (eBook) so that learners have the choice and flexibility to access materials anytime or anywhere. The visually engaging format breaks the content down into easily-digestible sections for students and provides hassle-free instant-access revision for learners. Clear specification fit, with revision activities and annotated sample responses for each unit to show students how to tackle the assessed tasks. Written with students in mind - in an informal voice that talks directly to them. Designed to be used alongside the Workbook with clear unit-by-unit correspondence to make it easy to use the books together. Updates to this title If you purchased this title before 3rd April 2017, you will have an older edition. In light of updates to the qualification, there may be changes required to this older edition, which will be outlined at www.pearsonfe.co.uk/BTECchanges. An updated edition of this title will release in time for the new academic year in September 2017. This new edition will reflect updates to the qualification that have been made. If you have the older edition and would like a copy of the new edition, please contact our customer services team, with proof of purchase, on 0845 313 6666 or email [email protected]

The reconfiguration of public education in the United States around free-market aims means each charter school must define its product, and its product features, around marketability - specifically their school's pedagogical practices, aims, and goals. Yet how these are defined may not align with how teachers perceive the aims and goals of teaching. This in turn impacts how individual teachers make meaning of their roles within a school culture, and how they talk about what the purposes and practices of teaching are for them. Invisible Features explores how one group of teachers at an urban charter school react to phenomena (including how the various product features of their school are presented) and how they make meaning of the prominent concepts in contemporary school reform, including teacher autonomy, accountability, failure, choice, and equity.

In the book, the author is focusing the importance of play for children from 0 years up to 8-12 years of age, e.g. in ECE centers and elementary schools. In particular, the importance of play for learning, through motivation as related to self-competence, inspiration and engagement. In this second edition, the author is emphasizing more thoroughly the importance of play as a challenge of learning, with implications for children, as well as for teachers. Further, the author is referring to how meaning making in children's production of multi-module narrative products can contribute to their digital personal formation. The selection of theories presented in the second edition is somewhat expanded, and in the end the author is presenting a few important educational challenges of the field of children's play.

Over the past thirty years, Holt High School in central Michigan has engaged in a quiet revolution that has transformed mathematics teaching and learning in the district. From its roots as a rural high school housed in a single building in the 1980s, the high school mathematics staff has grown an innovative, meaningful high school mathematics curriculum that sees nearly every student in the district completing the equivalent of Precalculus. Tracking was dropped in favor of an evolving suite of supports designed to promote student success in unifying, rather than segregating, ways. Mathematics classrooms in Holt are discourse-rich environments where teachers and students explore meaningful uses for mathematics as they reason and problem solve together. This transformation took place and persists amidst changing professional partnerships, shifting district demographics, increasing accountability measures at the state and national level, and turnover in teaching staff and district leadership. In this book, we explore the case of Holt High School though an exploration of how the mathematics curriculum has shifted over the past thirty years, and the conditions and supports that have been put in place in the district to make this work fruitful and sustainable. The story includes successes, failures, celebrations and challenges as we chronicle Holt's high school mathematics evolution. Guiding questions, protocols, and reflective activities are provided for teachers and district leaders to begin the challenging conversations in their own district that lead to meaningful change.

A broadly based historical survey, this book examines Native American boarding schools in the United States from Puritan times to the present day. Hundreds of thousands of Native Americans are estimated to have attended Native American boarding schools during the course of over a century. Today, many of the off-reservation Native American boarding schools have closed, and those that remain are in danger of losing critical federal funding. Ironically, some Native Americans want to preserve them. This book provides a much-needed historical survey of Native American boarding schools that examines all of these educational institutions across the United States and presents a balanced view of many personal boarding school experiences-both positive and negative. Author Mary A. Stout, an expert in American Indian subjects, places Native American boarding schools in context with other American historical and educational movements, discussing not only individual facilities but also the specific outcomes of this educational paradigm. Draws upon actual student letters and documents relating to boarding school experiences Presents biographical profiles of such key figures as Col. Richard Pratt, founder of Carlisle Indian School; and Jim Thorpe, American athlete and Carlisle graduate Provides a chronology of Native American boarding schools in the United States from the 1600s to the present Supplies an annotated bibliography of key research resources on Native American boarding schools Includes a glossary defining hundreds of terms relating to Indian culture and history

Declining academic performance, along with a growing apathy of students toward the value of education, demonstrates that students in the United States public education system do not recognize the value of a positive experience in middle schools. A plethora of research and writing has been done on elementary schools and secondary schools, but middle school education, as a whole, has been left behind. For this reason, there is the need for current research on all aspects and topics that may contribute to middle school student success. Promoting Positive Learning Experiences in Middle School Education focuses on the ideal conditions for maximizing student success and engagement in middle school education. The chapters take a deeper look into the modern tools, technologies, methods, and theories driving current research on middle school students, their teachers, their classroom environment, and their learning. Highlighting topics such as curriculum reform, instructional strategies and practices, effective teaching, and technology in the modern classroom, this book is ideally intended for middle school teachers, middle school administrators, and school district administrators, along with practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in middle school education and student success.

Mastering Primary Music introduces the primary music curriculum and helps trainees and teachers learn how to plan and teach inspiring lessons that make music learning irresistible. Topics covered include: * Current developments in music * Music as an irresistible activity * Music as a practical activity * Skills to develop in music * Promoting curiosity * Assessing children in music * Practical issues This guide includes examples of children's work, case studies, readings to reflect upon and reflective questions that all help to exemplify what is considered to be best and most innovative practice. The book draws on the experience of a leading professional in primary music, Ruth Atkinson, to provide the essential guide to teaching music for all trainee primary teachers.

This volume brings together design thinking, critical social theory, and learning sciences to describe promising learning innovations that foster rights, dignity, and social justice for youth. Each of the chapters provides a case study of a project and discusses underlying theories and behind-the-scenes accounts of implementation and lessons learned. The group of contributors represent emerging scholars who are leading voices working at the intersections of theory and practice for educational equity. Chapters in this volume take up themes of power and equity in the design and redesign of learning opportunities for young people. The chapters show variation in the kinds of learning--from complex ecologies spanning multiple institutions and age groups to specific classroom or after-school spaces. Chapters also vary in the focal ages of participants. Although most discuss experiences of young people between the ages of 12-25, some also explore the learning of elementary age youth. All of the chapters make the authors--who were researchers, designers, teachers, and facilitators--part of the narrative and process of learning. We are especially thankful that the authors of these chapters invite the reader into their thinking process and the tensions and contradictions that emerged as they sought to catalyze transformative learning spaces.

While developmental responsiveness is a deservingly key emphasis of middle grades education, this emphasis has often been to the detriment of focusing on the cultural needs of young adolescents. This Handbook volume explores research relating to equity and culturally responsive practices when working with young adolescents. Middle school philosophy largely centers on young adolescents as a collective group. This lack of focus has great implications for young adolescents of marginalized identities including but not limited to those with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTQ youth, and those living in poverty. If middle level educators claim to advocate for young adolescents, we need to mainstream conversations about supporting all young adolescents of marginalized identities. It empowers researchers, educators, and even young adolescents to critically examine and understand the intersectionality of identities that historically influenced (and continue to affect) young adolescents and why educators might perceive marginalized youth in certain ways. It is for these reasons that researchers, teachers, and other key constituents involved in the education of young adolescents must devote themselves to the critical examination and understanding of the historical and current socio-cultural factors affecting all young adolescents. The chapters in this volume serve as a means to open an intentional and explicit space for providing a critical lens on early adolescence-a lens that understands that both developmental and cultural needs of young adolescents need to be emphasized to create a learning environment that supports every young adolescent learner.

The book you can trust to guide you through your career in the early years, as the expert authors share tried and tested techniques in a range of early years settings. For this new edition, Jennifer Colwell and Amanda Ince have drawn together an expert author team to bring you guidance from top practitioners that is both cohesive and that continues to evolve to meet the needs of today's early years practitioners. It is designed for trainees whether in universities or early years settings and looks across the full early years spectrum, from birth to 8 years old. Reflective Teaching in Early Education uniquely provides two levels of support: - Practical, evidence- based guidance on key early years issues - including relationships, behaviour, inclusion, curriculum planning and learning, and teaching strategies - Evidence- informed 'principles' and 'concepts' to help you to understand the theories informing practice, offering ways for you to continue to develop your skills and understanding of early years practice in early childhood education and care New to this edition: - Case Studies which illustrate the impact Reflective Teaching can have on your practice and your setting - New Reflective Activities - Updated references and guidance on Key Readings - Updates to reflect recent changes in curriculum and assessment across the UK reflectiveteaching.co.uk provides a treasure trove of additional support. Readings for Reflective Teaching in Early Education, the supporting 'portable library' volume, is signposted throughout this book and provides convenient access to key texts.