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Gain experience with a systematic professional development model to identify key capacities needed in teachers who wish to develop and implement emergent curricula. Use the COI system to locate and use evidence from planning documents to help teachers develop curricula.

Written under the name "Malcolm Franklin", this article offers an account of my journey from first-generation college graduate from the rural midwest to college professor. I wrote it as a pedagogical text to give my undergraduates and graduate history students at ETSU a better sense of the challenges that face them if they choose to pursue an academic career path.

The National Association of Social Workers and the Council on Social Work Education are concerned with the eradication of racism within the social work profession and the nation at large. Graduate schools throughout the country are presently attempting to come to grips with this elusive and pervasive problem. The School of Social Work at Portland State University is among these schools. In early 1972, the Portland State University School of Social Work formalized and adopted a specific policy regarding recruitment, education, and issues concerning non-white students and communities. In doing so, this school became the first School of Social Work in the Northwest, perhaps in the nation, to have a specific, examinable policy covering its position of graduate education for non-whites. However, the genesis of this policy had extended back to 1971 when the need for a specific, consistent policy regarding non-whites and the School was being realized. It was during the subsequent task of developing this policy that the necessity for research in this area was keenly felt. The School of Social Work draws the majority of its students from the State of Oregon, specifically from the metropolitan area in and around Portland. The majority of its graduates choose to remain in Oregon to work. However, it was learned that little or no systematic information was available concerning the needs and programs of the practice community for non-white social service personnel. Since the School is committed both to education and to the service of the community, it became obvious that descriptive and concrete data were necessary. This research practicum is an attempt to examine this heretofore unexplored area in the State of Oregon.

This mixed methods case study documents an effort to implement authentic science and engineering instruction in one teacher's ninth grade science classrooms in a science-focused public school. The research framework and methodology is a derivative of work developed and reported by Newmann and others (Newmann & Associates, 1996). Based on a working definition of authenticity, data were collected for eight months on the authenticity in the experienced teacher's pedagogy and in student performance. Authenticity was defined as the degree to which a classroom lesson, an assessment task, or an example of student performance demonstrates construction of knowledge through use of the meaning-making processes of science and engineering, and has some value to students beyond demonstrating success in school (Wehlage et al., 1996). Instruments adapted for this study produced a rich description of the authenticity of the teacher's instruction and student performance. The pedagogical practices of the classroom teacher were measured as moderately authentic on average. However, the authenticity model revealed the teacher's strategy of interspersing relatively low authenticity instructional units focused on building science knowledge with much higher authenticity tasks requiring students to apply these concepts and skills. The authenticity of the construction of knowledge and science meaning-making processes components of authentic pedagogy were found to be greater, than the authenticity of affordances for students to find value in classroom activities beyond demonstrating success in school. Instruction frequently included one aspect of value beyond school, connections to the world outside the classroom, but students were infrequently afforded the opportunity to present their classwork to audiences beyond the teacher. When the science instruction in the case was measured to afford a greater level of authentic intellectual work, a higher level of authentic student performance on science classwork was also measured. In addition, direct observation measures of student behavioral engagement showed that behavioral engagement was generally high, but not associated with the authenticity of the pedagogy. Direct observation measures of student self-regulation found evidence that when instruction focused on core science and engineering concepts and made stronger connections to the student's world beyond the classroom, student self-regulated learning was greater, and included evidence of student ownership. In light of the alignment between the model of authenticity used in this study and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the results suggest that further research on the value beyond school component of the model could improve understanding of student engagement and performance in response to the implementation of the NGSS. In particular, it suggests a unique role environmental education can play in affording student success in K-12 science and a tool to measure that role.

Students' classroom engagement is a strong predictor of positive educational outcomes including academic achievement, GPA, and standardized test scores. Most existing research has focused on the role of quality parenting and teaching in the development of student engagement. However, some research has shown small, yet significant effects of influences from students' peer groups on the development of their engagement. The goal of this study was to explore whether some children are more susceptible to the effects of their peer groups, and to examine a series of possible factors that might amplify the influence of a target students peer group on the development of that students' own engagement over the course of an academic year. In a re-analysis of an existing data set (Kindermann, 2007), peer group profiles of student engagement were examined as predictors of changes in individual engagement from fall to spring. It was expected that peer groups' levels of engagement would vary in their predictive power for changes in students' own engagement over the school year, depending upon individual levels of peer relatedness, the number of peers with whom the student affiliates with, student perceptions of parental involvement, as well as person-to-group differences in engagement. Gender differences were expected to be non-significant. As expected, results from two sets of analysis indicate no significant gender differences in susceptibility to peer influence. Furthermore, results suggest that susceptibility to peer influence on school engagement may depend upon the number of peers with whom a student affiliates with, parental involvement, as well as person-to-group differences in engagement. However, contrary to expectations, results suggest that a student's susceptibility to peer influence may not depend upon self-reported peer relatedness. Details of the analyses, results, strengths, limitations, and implications for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this qualitative, critical race analysis study is to explore how White faculty conceptualize and apply critical race theory (CRT) and culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) to curricula within a college of education and how the perceptions of their students’ identities influence specific pedagogical decisions. The researcher sought to extend the research on CRT in education by analyzing specific, detailed cases and incorporating purposeful sampling by selecting participants who match specific study criteria, i.e. graduate-level White faculty located in Tennessee who teach in programs of education. This study was limited to six faculty in a college of education (in educational leadership and teacher education graduate programs) at a college in Tennessee. This study provided a framework for additional studies that may assist with exploring how faculty pedagogical decisions in the classroom could be impacted by incorporating CRT/CRP in courses and across curricula in educational leadership and teacher education graduate programs. A total of four themes emerged following the analysis of findings from this study: 1) CRT and CRP in Curriculum involved participants expressing awareness for the need to address race-related issues, e.g., race, diversity, equity, and inclusion matters, in their course curricula. In addition, this awareness highlighted their concerns for departmentwide consistency across course curricula/programs and not just within their isolated courses. 2) CRT/CRP are Novel with Room to Improve was developed based on over half of the participants discussing aspects related to how CRT and CRP within the realm of teaching are nascent and only beginning to be implemented. 3) Faculty Conceptualization of CRT/CRP involved participants expressing an awareness of CRT/CRP but not a full conceptualization of the matter or how to incorporate it in the classroom to address race-related issues (diversity, equity, and inclusion matters) in their course curricula. Lastly, 4) Student Perspective and Composition was another common theme expressed. With race and diversity being the focus, many participants discussed student composition and student perspectives as being relational.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was any significant increase in the reading achievement of Reading First third grade students compared to the reading achievement of the third grade reading students in Non-Reading First schools located in southwest Virginia for 2004-2009. The Standards of Learning (SOLs) reading test scores were compiled from the Virginia Standards of Learning test scores that are available to the public from the Virginia Department of Education website. The elementary schools chosen for this study have a similar number of disadvantaged students and similar demographics. The reading achievement was being examined after 6 years of implementation of teaching strategies using Reading First in 3 of the elementary schools and compared to Non-Reading First schools. Using a quantitative design, the comparative study included data obtained from the 2004-2009 Virginia Standards of Learning standardized assessment test scores for third grade students in 6 elementary schools. The data comparison examined the reading achievement relationship between the Reading First schools (experimental) and the Non-Reading First schools (control group). The analysis was based on 2 research questions and 12 hypotheses; 6 hypotheses for each question. A t-test for independent samples was used to identify the differences between the means of Reading First schools and the Non-Reading First schools. A chi square analysis was used to identify the differences between the means of Reading First schools compared to the means of Non-Reading First schools in the areas of not proficient, proficient, and advanced proficient. The results of the study indicated that there were significant increases for reading achievement for the Reading First schools in the experimental group compared to the Non-Reading First in the control group. The Reading First schools performed better or as well as their peers in Non-Reading First schools at the advanced reading proficiency level.

A large pool of reviewed literature and studies suggest that Social Emotional Learning (SEL) provides a multitude of developmental benefits to early childhood-aged children. The focus of this study was to assess whether SEL techniques were utilized within early care and education programs throughout the East Tennessee region and to investigate the relationship between SEL techniques and teacher self-efficacy. Sixteen early childhood teachers in the East Tennessee region completed a survey that gauged both their exposure and usage of SEL techniques in the classroom and their teacher self-efficacy. Findings showed that teachers primarily implemented self-studied SEL techniques in the classroom with the majority having not received any professional training. This project also found that teachers had high teacher self-efficacy, relating to their willingness and ability to efficiently implement SEL techniques. Results support the hypothesis that early childhood teachers are knowledgeable and capable of implementing SEL techniques within the classroom. However, a lack of professional training and direct SEL program implementation may affect the guarantee of efficiency and effectiveness within the implementation to students.