Two young women, dormitory mates, embark on their education at a big state university. Five years later, one is earning a good salary at a prestigious accounting firm. With no loans to repay, she lives in a fashionable apartment with her fiance. The other woman, saddled with burdensome debt and a low GPA, is still struggling to finish her degree in tourism. In an era of skyrocketing tuition and mounting concern over whether college is "worth it," Paying for the Party is an indispensable contribution to the dialogue assessing the state of American higher education. A powerful expose of unmet obligations and misplaced priorities, it explains in vivid detail why so many leave college with so little to show for it. Drawing on findings from a five-year interview study, Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton bring us to the campus of "MU," a flagship Midwestern public university, where we follow a group of women drawn into a culture of status seeking and sororities. Mapping different pathways available to MU students, the authors demonstrate that the most well-resourced and seductive route is a "party pathway" anchored in the Greek system and facilitated by the administration. This pathway exerts influence over the academic and social experiences of all students, and while it benefits the affluent and well-connected, Armstrong and Hamilton make clear how it seriously disadvantages the majority. Eye-opening and provocative, Paying for the Party reveals how outcomes can differ so dramatically for those whom universities enroll.

Most Americans would never willingly revisit their high school experiences; the nation's school systems reflect the broader society's hierarchical emphasis on race, class, and gender. While schools purport to provide equal opportunities for all students, this rarely happens in actuality-particularly for girls. In Downed by Friendly Fire, Signithia Fordham unmasks and examines female-centered bullying in schools, arguing that it is essential to unmask female aggression, bullying, and competition, all of which directly relate to the structural violence embedded in the racialized and gendered social order. For two and a half years, Fordham conducted field research at "Underground Railroad High School," a suburban high school in upstate New York. Through a series of composite student profiles, she examines the girls' relationships to academic achievement, social competition, and aggression toward one another. Fordham argues that girls academically "compete to lose," which only perpetuates their subordination through the misrecognition of their own competitive behaviors. She goes further to expand the meaning of violence to include what is seen as normal, including suffering, humiliation, and social and economic abuse. Using the concept "symbolic violence," Fordham theorizes the psychological and social damage suffered especially by black girls in schools. The five narratives in Downed by Friendly Fire ultimately highlight the pain and suffering this violence produces as well as the ways in which it promotes inequality, exclusion, and marginalization among girls.

Mit der vorliegenden Festschrift fur Karin Kleppin wird eine Wissenschaftlerin geehrt, die die deutsche Sprachlehrforschung seit ihren Anfangen in den 1970er-Jahren massgeblich gepragt hat. Der Sammelband orientiert sich an den Forschungsschwerpunkten von Karin Kleppin und ist unterteilt in die Themenbereiche "Individuelles und individualisiertes Fremdsprachenlernen", "Aus-, Fort- und Weiterbildung von bzw. zu Experten fur Fremdsprachenlehren und -lernen", "Testen, Prufen, Evaluieren fremdsprachlicher Kompetenzen" sowie "Fremdsprachenlernen im Hochschulkontext". Die Beitrage spiegeln aktuelle Entwicklungen in der Sprachlehrforschung und benachbarten Disziplinen wider. Ruckblicke in ihre Biografie zeichnen die Forscherpersoenlichkeit von Karin Kleppin nach. Dieser Band schliesst die Reihe ab.

More students are demanding that their college experiences address the core questions of meaning and purpose. "Helping College Students Find Purpose "provides a theory-to-practice model of meaning-making. Through a how-to approach, this resource presents a series of concrete steps for applying the theory and practice of meaning-making to teaching, leading, administering, and advising. This guidebook provides the background knowledge and tools necessary to create a meaningful community by encouraging faculty and administrators to act as mentors to students.

In Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Promising Practices for African American Male Students, I take us on a journey into teachers' perceptions of the impact of implementing culturally responsive pedagogical (CRP) practices on the student learning outcomes of African American male students. The book also helps to identify teachers' perceptions of the CRP strategies needed in the elementary school setting to address the diverse needs of African American male students. I share the story of educators from a large, diverse elementary school in an urban school district, who have made it their mission to provide African American male students with culturally responsive learning environments where they can thrive. Throughout the book, I make it clear that the implementation of CRP practices has a direct impact on the student learning outcomes of African American male students. The book provides additional research into the existing literature on CRP practices. Through a case study approach, my work allows for additional insight into the potential impact of CRP practices on the student learning outcomes of African American male students in an urban elementary school setting. The book takes us on a journey of highs and lows, ups and downs, and failures and successes. Throughout the book, rich, detailed stories and descriptions are shared based on classroom observations, interviews, and student learning outcomes collected from three elementary school teachers from diverse backgrounds and various years of experience. Classroom observations were conducted using the Culturally Responsive Instruction Observation Protocol (TM) (CRIOP) instrument to assess the practices being implemented in the classroom. As I focused on the hard realities that face African American male students in today's classrooms, I identified six emerging themes, including one overarching emerging theme, and three promising practices that surfaced during my research. The CRP practices implemented proved helpful toward increasing learning outcomes for African American male students, and, ultimately, closing the achievement gap. As an African American educator, I have been able to see how the lack of culturally responsive practices creates learning obstacles for African American male students. These learning obstacles continue to plague a group that has been historically marginalized in our society. The implementation of CRP practices provides educators with an avenue to remedy a social justice issue that has plagued our nation for years. The information shared in this book can be beneficial for all those invested in closing the achievement gap and increasing student learning outcomes through the use of culturally responsive practices, including pre-service and in-service teachers, administrators, caregivers, community advocates, educational researchers, and policy makers.

Teachers increasingly are being charged to conduct research on teaching and learning in their classes. Action research is an instrument that teachers can use for their particular classroom to meet this charge. While traditional research provides effective guidelines for teaching and learning, its generalized format does not take into consideration the multitude of variables that affect individual classrooms and students. Action research enables the teacher to improve the learning of the students in their particular context; this, in turn, improves the professional practice of the teacher. The uniqueness of the model presented in this book is that this model is guided by specific constructivist principles. These principles are then transformed into learning strategies and applied to the action research cycle. Each stage of the action research process also is steered by prompts emanating from the constructivist philosophy. The prompts provide questions that the teacher can use to examine current practices and consider new approaches. The blending of constructivism and action research enables the teacher to create a new cognitive framework for understanding and enhancing student learning . This book provides a guide for combining two important traditions resulting in a research platform which creates new knowledge about both students and teachers.

Ensuring Learning: Supporting Faculty to Improve Student Success is the second book in a two-book series. This book highlights the importance of teaching and learning in student success reform and is a deep dive into the fourth pillar, ensuring learning, of Guided Pathways which is a national movement focused on increasing the number of college students who earn a degree or credential. It emphasizes how institutional strategies such as investing in faculty development through Centers for Teaching and Learning and revising reward structures can significantly improve student achievement and completion rates. This book calls for colleges to prioritize teaching and learning and provides college leaders with guidance on how to do so. For example, strategies to develop and enhance Centers for Teaching and Learning and increase professional development programming that provides ongoing, substantial support to faculty are shared. Readers will benefit from numerous practical suggestions on how to help faculty improve teaching and learning practices and ultimately improve student success outcomes.

This book is premised on a very powerful social/educational concern about college retention rates: one-third of first-year students seriously consider leaving college during their first term, and only half of all students who start college ultimately graduate. This book examines the first year of college from a variety of perspectives to paint a comprehensive picture of the intersecting challenges facing today's students and higher education institutions. Technological advances, increases in college attendance costs, and increasing political pressure on colleges to prove their value have changed the landscape of the first year of college, but researchers have identified new approaches to improve student and institutional success that have shown considerable success and promise. In this comprehensive volume, top educational researchers explore topics of student success, persistence, and retention in the first year of college.