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School District Effectiveness Research (SDER) works to identify unusually effective organizations for in-depth qualitative study that significantly outperform peer districts over multiple years. Yet, critiques of SDER include a focus on cross-sectional data, individual states, and percent proficient metrics. Here, we analyze the Stanford Education Data Archive, including data on n = 10,825 districts 2009-2013, from 47 states and DC, with average student achievement equated to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). To replicate previous state-level SDER, we use a two-level hierarchical linear growth model, examining district growth over time, including an AR1 autoregressive parameter. We identify 536 outperforming districts nationally.

Civic engagement is recognized as a critical process to address environmental and other societal issues. To examine the intersection between environmental education and civic engagement, as reported in the peer-reviewed literature, we undertook a systematic mixed studies review to identify environmental education program outcomes related to civic engagement. The environmental education programs included in the final sample (n = 56) occurred in a range of settings, involved diverse audiences, and were generally longer than a month in duration. All 56 studies reported some level of positive findings, with 19 reporting civic-related outcomes at the community level, such as community learning, community resilience, partnership building, and increased social capital. Fifty studies reported civic-related outcomes at the individual level, with civic attitudes being the most frequent. Increased civic skills and civic knowledge were also commonly reported. Analysis revealed five themes related to environmental education practices and implementation that appear to support development of civic engagement: (1) focusing on the local community; (2) actively engaging learners through participatory and experiential approaches; (3) including action-taking as an integral part of the education program; (4) emphasizing development of lifelong cognitive skills; and (5) providing ongoing opportunities for participants to engage in meaningful social interaction.

Although research on the effectiveness of school resource officers (SROs) remains mixed, the number of SROs in the U.S. continues to grow. We interviewed 18 SROs, SRO supervisors, and school leaders from exemplar programs to explore SRO role perceptions. Analysis revealed three themes: (1) SROs support a safe learning environment via multiple roles; (2) common SRO roles are law enforcer, educator, community liaison, and emergency manager; and (3) additional roles are site-specific. Our findings suggest a need to articulate expected SRO roles and recognize SROs often play multiple, overlapping roles to support a safe environment for student learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the well-being of K-12 students, positioning youth mental health as a public health priority. School closures and remote learning are identified as key factors worsening child and adolescent mental well-being. However, research is sparse about the pandemic's impact on the mental health of Black and Latinx youth, who have already been at increased risk of mental health problems. Further, community perspectives on actionable, school-based mental health policies are scarce, which may limit the relevance of implemented policies. The current study had two research questions: (1) What do professionals from diverse sectors perceive the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to be on the mental health of Black and Latinx youth from low-income backgrounds? (2) What policies do community professionals recommend to address Black and Latinx youth mental health in public schools? This qualitative study applied community-partnered participatory research principles. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted from April-June 2021 with 30 youth-serving community-based professionals working in an urban area. We utilized grounded theory methodology to identify key themes. Dominant themes for perceived mental health impact were anxiety and depression with more frequent and intense suicidal ideation. The most frequent school policy recommendations were to increase access to individual supports in schools and to implement early detection and prevention initiatives. Further investment in workforce capacity in schools is vital to address the mental health needs of Black and Latinx youth. Policymakers can learn from stakeholders to help ensure that policies align with community needs.

Although designed for informal educational structures and non-formal providers, the AeroEducate initiative offers youth in a variety of settings an initial exposure to the world of aviation and aeronautics. Real-world and context-based experiences spark learners' interests and may help them discover a personal and/or professional passion for the field. K-12 STEM Educators can easily implement one or more of the AeroEducate activities in their classroom teaching or after-school clubs. Each AeroEducate activity is strategically aligned with multiple standards for successful integration into formal educational settings. Through AeroEducate, the Experimental Aeronautics Association (EAA) provides quality resources for facilitators to build awareness and increase exposure and opportunities for youth. The collaboration between EAA, NC State, and the National Institute of Aerospace demonstrates how higher education and industry partners can and should work together to address STEM workforce needs.

Observation-based ecology (OBE) generates critical knowledge about the health of ecological systems and human impacts on these systems. Systematic observations of organisms and processes from an early age can help children develop ecological knowledge and skills, and deepen their connection to the natural world. Yet recent educational reforms may privilege other scientific and engineering practices (SEPs) over OBE methods. We used lexical analysis of Next Generation Science Standards documents to identify instances of observational methods suggested in the SEPs and ecology-related performance expectations (PEs). We identify where observations are included and omitted in these documents. Only 16 of the 175 (9%) learning progression descriptions for the SEPs explicitly mention observations. Nine out of 142 (6%) PEs related to ecology require observations. OBE opportunities were particularly scarce in middle and high school years, and missing entirely from PEs for disciplinary core ideas related to ecosystems and human impacts on ecosystems. We consider how these missed opportunities may constrain place-based learning in natural environments, and reflect on implications for educators, students, and nonhuman others.

Recent developments in initiatives, standards, and legislative agendas have led to increases in the number of STEM educators, in particular elementary STEM educators. This study investigates and reports the characteristics and credentials of this group and explores the features and characteristics of the student population within their classrooms. These criteria were analyzed over nearly a decade in efforts to identify progressions and changes in response to national demands. Data for this study was gathered from the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) School and Staffing Survey Teacher Questionnaire (SASS TQ) and documents a significant increase in the number of fulltime elementary STEM educators, depicting the current profile of these educators as largely female, mid-career, and fully certified with a bachelor's degree from a traditional teacher preparation program. Trends support that this group is becoming more diversified with more seeking graduate degrees and more earning certification via alternative programming.

Real world, mathematics-based educational activities provide context for learning and break down barriers to learning in mathematics and science. SpaceMath@NASA (hereafter SpaceMath) provides teachers with real-world math activities in a space context in support of standards, by using current NASA discoveries as a starting point for motivating students to develop and use mathematics skills. The reach and efficacy of SpaceMath in supporting NASA's STEM mission was examined through an analysis of the resources and website data, a survey of a subset of listserv members, data from workshop attendees - new users of SpaceMath, and a comparison group study. SpaceMath has been used by millions of educators who consistently report that SpaceMath aligns with what they teach, that they can immediately apply what they have learned in workshops, and are able to use it in their classes. Educators report that students enjoy the application problems and topics, are productively engaged, and ask questions that demonstrate curiosity and interest. Use of SpaceMath to teach science concepts and apply math skills provides a context that enhances student understanding.

Increased interest in climate change education and the growing recognition of the challenges inherent to addressing this issue create an opportunity to conduct a systematic review to understand what research can contribute to our ideas about effective climate change education. An academic database, EBSCO"host," was used to identify 959 unique citation records addressing climate change education. Of these, 49 sources met the criteria of focusing on assessment of climate change education interventions. Analysis of these sources examined the intervention purpose, assessment methodology, and identified strategies that might result in effective interventions. Two themes were identified that are common to most environmental education: (1) focusing on personally relevant and meaningful information and (2) using active and engaging teaching methods. Four themes specific to issues such as climate change were also generated: (1) engaging in deliberative discussions, (2) interacting with scientists, (3) addressing misconceptions, and (4) implementing school or community projects. Suggestions for addressing controversial topics like climate change are offered.

There are powerful forces of resistance that must be acknowledged when introducing educational reforms that foster ecological intelligence. The foremost source of resistance is the paradigm gap that now separates generations. That is, the vast majority of university professors, classroom teachers--and thus the general public that has been educated by them--were socialized to take-for-granted many of the conceptual underpinning that supported the idea that intelligence is the attribute that is the basis of individual autonomy. Given the current "race to the top" approach to educational reform being sponsored by the federal government, and given the late twentieth century mindset that still dominates in most colleges of education and in the social sciences and humanities, it would be easy to think that the scale of resistance is too great to warrant the effort of promoting the exercise of ecological intelligence. Exercising ecological intelligence needs to become part of the students' culturally mediated embodied experiences--which will engage all the physical senses along with memory, and a heightened aesthetic awareness and moral responsibility. In this article, the author offers practical steps to making the exercise of ecological intelligence part of students' taken-for-granted experience. Many teachers expect specific lesson plans on how ecological intelligence can be reinforced in different curriculum units and experiences. Presenting actual curriculum units contradicts the primary characteristics of ecological intelligence--and how to foster it. Rather than reinforcing the tendency to rely upon packaged learning experiences, the stress should be placed upon the teacher's awareness of the issues, misunderstandings being perpetuated in the curriculum, and examples of ecological thinking that can be introduced in different learning settings. The author presents a summary of the main issues and concepts that can be brought into the discussion at almost any level of the educational process and in almost every area of the curriculum. (Contains 1 note.)

This study reports on findings from a survey of Massachusetts' school principals that examined their perceptions of the nature and quality of certification programs. Results indicate that "when" participants were certified (pre or post NCLB) and "where" they were certified (public, private, alternative programs) has a significant influence on the perceived content and quality of their preparation. These findings reveal that accountability measures may have led to changes in the content and structure of principal preparation programs over time and suggest a need for state standards that influence the development, delivery, and evaluation of principal preparation programs to reflect the requisite skills principals need and want in the 21st century. (Contains 2 tables and 6 figures.)

Purpose: Instructional leadership has been an active area of educational administration research over the past 30 years. However, there has been significant divergence in how instructional leadership has been conceptualized over time. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of 25 years of quantitative instructional leadership research, up through 2013, using a nationally generalizable data set. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a meta-narrative review of 109 studies that investigated at least one aspect of instructional leadership using the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) administered by the US National Center for Education Statistics. Findings: There were four major themes of instructional leadership research that analyzed SASS data: principal leadership and influence, teacher autonomy and influence, adult development, and school climate. The three factors most researched in relationship to instructional leadership themes were: teacher satisfaction, teacher commitment, and teacher retention. This study details the major findings within each theme, describes the relationships between all seven factors, and integrates the relationships into a single model. Originality/value: This paper provides the most comprehensive literature review to-date of quantitative findings investigating instructional leadership from the same nationally generalizable data set. This paper provides evidence that leadership for learning is the conceptual evolution of 25 years of diverse instructional leadership research.

Many practitioners and researchers describe academic and environmental benefits of environmental education for kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12) students. To consider the empirical underpinnings of those program descriptions, we systematically analyzed the peer-reviewed literature (1994-2013), focusing on outcomes of environmental education programs with K-12 students. In the resulting sample of 119 articles, we identified 121 unique outcomes, finding that most articles reported positive findings from the programs under study. Reflections stemming from the review highlight the versatility of environmental education, while also suggesting opportunities for bolder and more diversified approaches in research design and thinking.

This study investigated the differences between how individual teachers perceive leadership for learning and how teachers collectively perceive leadership for learning, using a large nationally generalizable data-set of 7070 schools from the National Center for Education Statistics 2011-2012 Schools and Staffing Survey. This study used cross-validation multilevel factor analysis to find that individual teachers view leadership for learning as consisting of six factors (school influence, classroom control, collegial climate, student attendance, neighbourhood context, teacher commitment) whereas teachers collectively (e.g. as a faculty) perceive three factors that are non-isomorphic with the individual-level factors (instructional leadership, management, social environment). These results imply that teachers collectively have a functional view of leadership, while individual teachers have views more aligned to specific areas of influence. This article provides the beginning of a theoretical framework for future multilevel educational leadership research into teacher leadership and leadership for learning.

Difficulties characterizing developmental college students are reviewed within the context of motivational theories of learning. The author highlights problems of low self-efficacy and inadequate self-regulated learning for developmental college students. The author argues that the use of Facebook, a widely-used social networking technology, may be helpful in improving low self-efficacy and self-regulated learning by increasing connection with the instructor, increasing social contact with classmates, and providing an opportunity to guide students in their responsible use of Facebook technology. The author outlines instructional techniques that may be utilized with Facebook, such as the instructor creating a profile and facilitating student contact via chat rooms.

Utilizing rich data on nearly 11,000 educators over 17 academic years in a highly diverse context, we examine the career paths of teachers to determine whether and when they transition into the principalship. We utilize a variety of event history analyses, including discrete-time hazard modeling, to determine how an individual's race, gender, and their combination--among other characteristics--contribute to their likelihood of making this transition. We found that inequitable pathways to the principalship are not explained by systematic differences in personal and contextual characteristics along lines of race and gender but rather that the selection of school leaders may be a process influenced by systemic bias.

Grading refers to the symbols assigned to individual pieces of student work or to composite measures of student performance on report cards. This review of over 100 years of research on grading considers five types of studies: (a) early studies of the reliability of grades, (b) quantitative studies of the composition of K-12 report card grades, (c) survey and interview studies of teachers' perceptions of grades, (d) studies of standards-based grading, and (e) grading in higher education. Early 20th-century studies generally condemned teachers' grades as unreliable. More recent studies of the relationships of grades to tested achievement and survey studies of teachers' grading practices and beliefs suggest that grades assess a multidimensional construct containing both cognitive and noncognitive factors reflecting what teachers value in student work. Implications for future research and for grading practices are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which there is a typology of principals who depart from their schools in the U.S. using the 2007-2008 Schools and Staffing Survey and the 2008-2009 Principal Follow-up Survey. Prior principal retention research has focused on identifying factors that predict principal turnover; however, this research has not focused on understanding the extent to which there may potentially be different subgroups of principals who depart. This study uses latent class analysis to identify and better understand the types of principals who exit their schools and discusses the implications of such findings.

School districts in the USA are an active area of study in education research as findings have shown that some districts find success in certain contexts while others struggle. However, the research domain has had few actionable methods for site selection for in-depth qualitative studies. This study analyses all districts in the state of Ohio (n = 610) from 2005-2006 through 2012-2013 using a two-level hierarchical linear growth model to identify districts that significantly outperform or underperform background and demographic variables in the Ohio Performance Index (PI) Score, factors outside the influence of the district administration. The aim of the study is to provide a framework for selecting comparison and contrast sites for district effectiveness research (DER). Additionally, the model captures school-level variance within districts controlling for average district performance. Fifteen outperforming districts are named as potential sites for in-depth qualitative studies of district effects in comparison to similar districts at the norm.

Purpose: Effective styles of principal leadership can help address multiple issues in struggling schools, such as low student achievement and high rates of teacher attrition. Although the literature has nominated certain "idealized" leadership styles as being more or less effective, such as transformational, instructional, and shared instructional leadership, we have little evidence about how principals may or may not choose to practice these styles across U.S. schools. Research Design: Latent class analysis was used to identify different types of principals across the United States. We analyzed the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey as it presents a unique opportunity to study the different types of U.S. principals since it contains leadership measures not found in other national surveys. A final sample of 7,650 public schools and principals was included in the analysis. Findings: Instead of idealized leadership styles signifying variations in practice, the differences between types of principals were defined by the degree of principal and teacher leadership. Further, the school and principal context, such as school size, urbanicity, accountability performance, and principal background, predicted the three significantly different principal types: controlling, frequent principal leadership; balkanizing, high degree of leadership shared with teachers; or integrating, frequent principal leadership as well as a high degree of leadership shared with teachers. Conclusions: These types suggest that principals simultaneously practice leadership behaviors associated with multiple leadership styles in accordance with their background and school context. These findings provide support for the use of more complex models to assess school leader effectiveness.

Purpose: Across the United States, a large percentage of school districts are in need of facility improvements to provide safe and adequate buildings to facilitate student learning. To finance new construction, school districts traditionally have put proposals before local voters to fund construction through issuing long-term bonds to finance near-term construction. However, past literature indicates that there are few variables that are associated with bond election outcomes that are under the influence of school administrators. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors most associated with passing or failing a school district capital facility finance bond in the state of Texas from 1997 through 2009. Research Methods: We analyzed all proposed school bonds in Texas from 1997 to 2009 ("n" = 2,224) using a logistic regression discrete time hazard model to model the probability of passing a bond on the first, second, or third attempt, while controlling for multiple types of variables such as bond, district, and community characteristics, as well as specific election characteristics. Findings: We found that the first attempt of a bond is the mostly likely to succeed, as well as bonds that propose renovations and debt refinancing, or are at the top of the ballot. Also, while percent population over age 65 was negatively related to bond passage, percent Asian and Hispanic students was positively related. Implications for Research and Practice: Using past research and our findings, we propose a mediated model of school bond passage and provide specific recommendations for administrators looking to pass needed facility construction bonds, including focusing on passing the bond on the first attempt and proposing only a single bond that includes all requests.

Historically, the relationship between student academic achievement and use of computers for fun and video gaming has been described from a multitude of perspectives, from positive, to negative, to neutral. However, recent research has indicated that computer use and video gaming may be positively associated with achievement, yet these studies have focused on small intact and qualitative samples. The purpose of the present study is to examine the association between academic achievement in high school and student use of computers for fun and video gaming using the large nationally representative ELS:2002 sample of students in grade 10 in 2002 and an independent effects two-level hierarchical linear model. Our results indicate that both student use of computers for fun and moderate levels of video gaming were positive and significant on cross-sectional reading and mathematics achievement assessments in high school, controlling for multiple covariates of achievement, but were not related to growth in mathematics from grade 10 to grade 12.

Two theoretical perspectives have been proposed to describe, explain, and intervene in adolescent development--prevention science and positive youth development (PYD). An integrative model bridging these two perspectives posits that it is important to assess the extent to which the same, similar, or complementary mechanisms may be responsible for preventing problem behavior and promoting PYD. Therefore, using data from the 4-H Study of PYD, the present study examines the role of assets in the family, school, and neighborhood in differentiating trajectories of goal-optimization and delinquency in a sample of 626 youth (50.9% female) from Grades 5 to 11. The results indicated that collective activity in the family best predicted membership for the five goal-optimization trajectories while school-based assets differentiated the four delinquency trajectories that were identified. The findings suggest that multidimensional approaches may be most effective to promote PYD and prevent problem behaviors. (Contains 2 figures and 4 tables.)

The technological revolution that has finally permeated K-12 education has direct implications for modern teacher educators whose "Hippocratic oath" is to best prepare future teachers for twenty-first-century classrooms. The goal of this article is to suggest that the heart of sound technological implementation is to encourage students to use whatever tools are available to explain the mathematical relations that underlie what they observe on the screen. We suggest ways in which Mishra and Koehler's construct of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge may be customized to provide a framework for guiding prospective teachers' efforts to develop and assess lesson plans that use technology in novel and effective ways. Data are presented in the form of two contrasting case studies to illustrate the differing degrees to which prospective mathematics teachers leveraged technology to teach themselves and their future students to explain the mathematics behind various topics.

This paper sets out the theoretical and methodological approach of a study of the politics of persuasion and the mobilisation of interest in relation to the Trust schools initiative in England. Drawing on the discourse theoretical approach of Laclau and Mouffe the paper argues that the politics of consensus associated with New Labour reconfigures the field of politics, closing down legitimate democratic space. Building on this approach and that of policy sociology the paper outlines how the researchers seeks to address the following questions--if the space for legitimate democratic debate is so severely constrained then how does a social democratic government deal with the kind of opposition that Labour faced in relation to Trust schools? How do governments persuade dissident citizens to support unpopular policies? How are citizens mobilised to support such policies? This also raises questions about how, in such a restricted political space, do those questioning or resisting such policies, engage in the politics of persuasion and the mobilisation of interests? The reconfiguration of the field of politics and what this means for the constitution of legitimate democratic debate is the object of study of the research. (Contains 2 notes.)

Purpose: District effectiveness research (DER) is an emerging field concerned with identifying the organizational structures, administration, and leadership practices at the school district level that help districts find success with all of their students across the schools within the system. This work has mirrored much of the early school effectiveness research (SER). However, to date across the DER literature, site selection for in-depth studies of districts deemed "effective" has been haphazard and nonsystematic. This is problematic given the long history of critiques centered on site selection in SER. The purpose of this study is to address and adapt the critiques from SER to a method of site selection for DER and test the method using a large multiyear data set to identify districts that are significantly unusual and effective. Research Design: A two-level hierarchical linear growth model that nests multiple time points per district (Level 1) within districts (Level 2) was used to predict gains in district achievement for all school districts in the state of Ohio during a 7-year period, 2001-2002 through 2007-2008. Findings: Districts that statistically significantly outperformed their predicted gains in achievement, controlling for background and demographic variables over the period, are identified as possible sites for in-depth qualitative studies for DER in comparison to districts performing at the norm. Conclusions: This study proposes and tests a method for district identification in DER that addresses the critiques from SER through controlling for achievement covariates, modeling district gains over time, and examining the population of districts within an entire state. (Contains 1 note, 2 tables, and 1 figure.)

School personnel currently lack an effective method to pattern and visually interpret disaggregated achievement data collected on students as a means to help inform decision making. This study, through the examination of longitudinal K-12 teacher assigned grading histories for entire cohorts of students from a school district (n=188), demonstrates a novel application of hierarchical cluster analysis and pattern visualization in which all data points collected on every student in a cohort can be patterned, visualized and interpreted to aid in data driven decision making by teachers and administrators. Additionally, as a proof-of-concept study, overall schooling outcomes, such as student dropout or taking a college entrance exam, are identified from the data patterns and compared to past methods of dropout identification as one example of the usefulness of the method. Hierarchical cluster analysis correctly identified over 80% of the students who dropped out using the entire student grade history patterns from either K-12 or K-8. (Contains 5 figures.)

Studies of student risk of school dropout have shown that present predictors of at-risk status do not accurately identify a large percentage of students who eventually drop out. Through the analysis of the entire Grade 1-12 longitudinal cohort-based grading histories of the class of 2006 for two school districts in the United States, the author extends past longitudinal conceptions of dropout to a longitudinal risk perspective, using survival analysis, life tables, and discrete-time hazard modeling to appropriately account for student graduation, transfer, or dropout. The risk of dropout began in Grade 7, with the most hazardous years at Grades 8 and 11. A novel calculation of teacher-assigned grades, noncumulative GPA, is identified as a strong predictor of student dropout. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures and 6 notes.)

This study investigates parameters affecting the likelihood of passing school facility construction bonds by local district election. Using statewide data from Michigan, this study analyzes school bond data for urban (n = 30), suburban (n = 164), small town (n = 70), and rural (n = 241) school districts that held capital improvement bond elections from 2000 to 2005. This analysis found four parameters that were significant in predicting either passage or failure of school bonds: bond amount, number of students enrolled, the number of times the bond was attempted, and district urbanicity. Examining district bond passage rates by urbanicity showed that rural districts have worse chances of passing bond elections than urban and suburban districts and that small-town districts have the worst chances of all. (Contains 3 notes, 3 tables and 2 figures.)

This study investigates what factors are associated with the likelihood of passing school facility construction bonds by local district election. It uses statewide data from Michigan, 1998-2006, to examine the outcome of 789 bond elections in terms of the following ten variables: amount of the bond request; district enrollment; district locale; percentage of students receiving free school lunches; percentage of the district population with only a high school degree; the district's long-term debt; voter turnout; the day of the calendar year on which the election is held; the number of the bond proposal on the ballot; and the inclusion of technology in the ballot proposal's wording. The logistic regression analysis finds that bond amount--percentage of students receiving free lunches, percentage of district population with only a high school degree, voter turnout, and being further down on the ballot--are all negative and significant factors. District long-term debt and holding the election later in the calendar year are both positive and significant factors. District enrollment numbers are non-significant. In terms of district locale--using mid-sized city and suburban districts as the reference group--being a small town and rural district is a negative and significant factor. (Contains 1 figure and 3 tables.)

This paper compares two celebrated studies--New York City Community School District 2 (Elmore & Burney, 1999), and "Good to Great" (Collins, 2001), which examined sustained success in American corporations--to the case of a single high-performing school district. The question of interest concerns how school districts achieve and maintain high performance. The study focuses on five central issues from a combined theory from District 2 and "Good to Great": 1) An organizationwide disciplined system that provides boundaries for participants but allows for creativity and innovation within those boundaries; 2) a central defined organizational focus that drives day-to-day decisions and is separate from an organization's vision and mission; 3) getting the right people into the organization through innovative hiring and training practices; 4) funneling budgetary resources to district priorities through multipocket budgeting; and 5) a long-term commitment to success through continuous improvement while maintaining a focus on the current challenges facing the organization. (Contains 1 figure, 1 table, and 3 notes.)

In a research collaboration with government biologists and university educators, K-12 students in the Cle Elum-Roslyn (CER) School District in eastern Washington are investigating where cougars ("Puma concolor") go when their habitat gives way to new housing developments. Now in its seventh year, Project Cougars and Teaching (CAT) is taking the education and science partnership a step further by incorporating civics into the environmental education curriculum. Through this model, students become civically engaged by conducting field investigations of the indigenous cougar's ecology and making public presentations to the community. This article describes the project's use of two curriculum models--one for field investigations and one for civic participation--in the context of studying human/cougar interactions. These models can also be used to guide other community studies. In addition, the curriculum is a prime example of how a community wildlife problem is bringing together diverse community interests to address a given need. (Contains 3 figures.)

This article examines the implications of competition between school districts in a mid-Michigan metropolitan area. Over the 10-year period after Michigan's major school-funding reform in 1994, many urban and suburban districts found themselves competing for per-pupil state funding. Suburban districts need extra students to make up budgetary shortfalls and protect instructional programs that are essential in today's political climate of school accountability. Several districts in this study built new or substantially renovated state-of-the-art high schools, possibly illustrating a space race between the districts to build bigger, better, newer capital assets that attract pupils and residential development. The central city district, surrounded by growing suburbs with higher-value taxable property, is at a disadvantage in this competition. (Contains 4 figures, 6 notes and 3 tables.)

Substantial disagreement exists in the literature regarding which educational technology results in the highest cognitive gain for learners. In an attempt to resolve this dispute, we conducted a meta-analysis to decipher which teaching method, games and interactive simulations or traditional, truly dominates and under what circumstances. It was found that across people and situations, games and interactive simulations are more dominant for cognitive gain outcomes. However, consideration of specific moderator variables yielded a more complex picture. For example, males showed no preference while females showed a preference for the game and interactive simulation programs. Also, when students navigated through the programs themselves, there was a significant preference for games and interactive simulations. However, when teachers controlled the programs, no significant advantage was found. Further, when the computer dictated the sequence of the program, results favored those in the traditional teaching method over the games and interactive simulations. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for exiting theoretical positions as well as future empirical research. (Contains 1 table.)

This article describes issues related to the design and research of a multimedia case study for prospective mathematics teachers. In the design section, we discuss three questions to consider when creating a multimedia case, and explore how various other researchers have answered them. In the results section, we describe a survey-based study we conducted that focused on the use of one multimedia case that was used in seven different mathematics methods classrooms across the US. Two overall findings were (a) the most useful and most highly rated feature of the CD was the teacher reflections, and (b) overall, the multimedia case received the highest ratings from students enrolled in courses where the case exploration activities were integrally woven into the course goals. (Contains 2 notes and 8 figures.)

Addresses three issues: (1) the nature and importance of an eco-justice pedagogy; (2) how an eco-justice pedagogy differs from the recommendations of critical pedagogy theorists; and (3) the reforms that need to be undertaken in teacher education in order for teachers to balance critical inquiry with helping students recognize and participate in the non-commodified aspects of community life. (Author/MM)

Contrary to computer advocates' globalism = empowerment rhetoric, the dominant globalization pattern involves relentless commodification of knowledge, skills, and interdependent relationships. Few consider the ecological implications of commodifying (digitizing) leisure, education, health care, or communications. Posing community regeneration questions would foster a more ecologically sustainable understanding. (MLH)