<p> A growing body of research suggests that any serious effort to eliminate the achievement gap in U.S. schools must address the school-readiness gap upon school entry (Sadowski, 2006). As a result, preschool programs remain the focus of public policy interests as a possible solution to address achievement shortfalls (Cannon &amp; Karoly, 2007). The question of whether a child is &ldquo;ready&rdquo; for school is a dynamic one and depends on complex interaction between early experiences and child, family, and community characteristics. The purpose of this study was to examine the circumstances and conditions of school readiness and what it looks like in practice through the lens of the Head Start preschool director. Based on the results of program observation, interview, focus group, and child-outcome assessment data, a case for an ecological approach to school readiness was made. Furthermore, the results identified strengths, weaknesses, and challenges experienced by one Head Start preschool director striving to create a high- quality program for the purpose of getting young learners ready for school. Based on the findings, recommendations are made to make California&rsquo;s early learning system more coherent and effective. </p>

<p> Education policy and mandates have changed drastically over the last 40 years. As politicians began adopting educational platforms as part of their political agenda, the educational standards of the United States have risen. Politicians have specifically targeted underserved populations as the focus of their educational reforms. Programs such as Race to the Top, FERPA, and No Child Left Behind are examples of politicians attempting to provide all students with equitable educations, regardless of ethnicity, gender, and economic background. </p><p> Just as it is na&iuml;ve to believe that all students learn the same, it is also na&iuml;ve to believe that there is one perfect program that will meet the needs of all students in all areas of the country. Under the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2009, the US Department of Education strove to close the education gap with the introduction of School Improvement Grants. The SIG provided federal funds to underserved schools through a rigorous application process. The funds were available to approved schools for 3-year period. The purpose of this grant was to help underserved schools create and implement a program that was tailored to meet the needs of their students, while promoting academic growth. </p><p> This study focused on urban, public New England schools who received SIG funds between 2010 &ndash; 2016. Through semi-structured interviews with administrators at identified successful SIG schools, a list of best practices has been compiled as a reference for future urban, public New England schools who receive SIG funding. The key findings of this study indicated that communication, strong leadership, collaboration, and good staffing choices played a significant role in the success of the SIG programs. The conclusion of this study indicated that while schools and students have a vast range of needs and difficulties, there are several common shared experiences that could possibly help other administrators in their quest to implement a successful SIG program.</p><p>

<p>There were dual purposes of this qualitative phenomenological study. The first purpose was to describe and compare the goals, design, implementation, and outcomes of college counseling programs in college preparatory charter high schools in Los Angeles as experienced and shared by high school college counselors. The second purpose was to explore what college preparatory charter high school college counselors perceive to be the most important components in a charter high school college-going culture to assist underrepresented students with access to college and preparation to persist in higher education. This phenomenological study utilized interviews to collect data. The one-on-one interviews were with college counselors at Los Angeles college-preparatory charter high schools where at least 60% of students are from underrepresented backgrounds. The 9 interview questions were developed to learn about the goals, design, implementation, and outcomes of college counseling programs at the participants? high schools. The questions were also designed to learn about what counselors perceive as important components in a college-going culture to help underrepresented students access and persist in higher education. The study yielded 5 conclusions. First, students and families from underrepresented backgrounds rely on their schools to inform them about the college preparation process. Second, parental involvement helps hold students academically accountable and helps them pursue higher education. Third, individualized academic advising is critical for student success. Fourth, charter high schools provide insight to address student-to-counselor ratios, which influence the quality of high school college counseling programs. Lastly, students? ability to adapt and navigate changes in academic rigor, social environment, and academic community impacts their college access and persistence. The study yielded 4 recommendations. First, states, districts, and schools are encouraged to continue to address student-to-counselor ratios to enable personalized college counseling that students need. Second, it is advised that counselors have conversations about college in collaboration with parents. Third, it is recommended that schools provide opportunities via their college counseling programs to expose students to individuals from different backgrounds and to different environments. Finally, it is suggested that high schools challenge students academically to help them prepare for the academic rigor of higher education.

<p> Time-based reform proposals are founded on the assumption that more time in school will produce great learning outcomes. Research shows that when schools adopt time-based reform initiatives, there are certain considerations that they should make and methods they should follow to ensure the change produces the outcomes intended. This was not the case in a local Archdiocese where a calendar extension was adopted by several elementary schools. </p><p> This qualitative case study focused on the adoption of a calendar extension at one Catholic elementary school. The researcher gathered data from the pastor, principal, teachers, parents, and students to determine how these stakeholders envisioned the outcomes of this change, how they perceived the time was being used for curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular purposes, and the challenges and opportunities that they felt existed after three years of implementation. Data collected over a four-month period included classroom observations, stakeholder interviews, focus group meetings, and document analysis. </p><p> An inductive analysis of the data collected was used to determine emergent themes and domains within the school. The seven themes that emerged include: decision making, planning and implementation, advantages, financial motivations, the culture of teaching, leadership, challenges and complications of the extended calendar. </p><p> Recommendations include the need for school leaders to familiarize themselves with change management techniques including setting a shared vision, establishing a collaborative implementation plan, and developing a system of assessment prior to embarking on school reform.</p>

<p> Few studies have examined the intersection of charter school and special education policies. The concerns around the serving of special education students in charter schools must be carefully studied, especially as charter schools continue to grow in numbers and continue to serve a greater percentage of public school students. New policies must not only address equity in access for special education students in charter schools but must also study how charter schools can be leveraged to generate innovative and promising practices in the area of special education. </p><p> This study examines a recent policy change in the Los Angeles Unified School District that provides great autonomy and increased accountability for charter schools in their provision of special education services. This policy change promotes key tenets of charter schools: (a) autonomy and decentralization, (b) choice and competition, and (c) performance-based accountability with the aim of increasing access for students with special needs and increasing the capacity of charter schools to serve them. The research design utilizes a mixed method approach to collect qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the goals of this major policy change within this particular school district. </p>

<p> Each fall, approximately one million children enter the ninth grade with little prospect of completing high school. Of the 1.1 million students projected to leave school without a diploma for the 2012 school year, a staggering 27 percent (approximately 310,000) will be of Latino descent (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2012). The purpose of this study&mdash;"Dreams Deferred: A Qualitative Study of Latino Youth Who Left High School Prior to Obtaining a Diploma"&mdash;was to examine the perceptions and beliefs of Latino youth as they attempted to make meaning of the factors that led to their leaving school before graduation. Utilizing phenomenological research methods, the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with ten individuals who had the shared experience of leaving high school prematurely. The phenomenological in-depth interview research design was chosen because the occurrence of Latino students leaving school without a diploma cannot be examined without consideration of how the experience was defined and felt by the students. In addition, multiple factors must be considered including the subjective impact of the students' social, cultural and educational histories on their school experience. The individuals were participants in a community-based GED program and were selected through purposeful sampling based on pre-identified selection criteria. The study focused on the participants' perceptions of their school experience and the events and influences that precipitated their premature departure from school. Data were collected through the in-depth interviews and detailed field notes of observations made during the interviews and program activities. Data analysis consisted of coding responses and clustering relevant statements into themes and patterns, which were then synthesized into descriptions of the participants' school experience and the factors associated with their leaving school prior to graduation. Data from the study revealed that the participants began to feel disengaged in middle school, and they perceived that their interaction with school personnel had a significant impact on their school experience. In addition, the participants cited multiple factors outside of school that diverted their focus from learning and ultimately contributed to their leaving school without a diploma. Recommendations for practice and additional research are included following a discussion of data.</p>

<p> Among ethnic groups in California, Latinos continue to have the lowest high school graduation rates and the lowest college completion rates. This study focused on understanding the role parents can play and ways schools and educators can support immigrant Latino parents to improve these rates. </p><p> Framed with a <i>funds of knowledge</i> approach (Gonzalez, N., Moll, L., &amp; Amanti, C.,2005), this mixed-methods qualitative and quantitative study was conducted in a public charter high school in a low income area of Los Angeles where the student body was primarily Latino. The mission of the school was to prepare students for higher education at a four-year institution. </p><p> The study results showed that it is possible for a school to engage immigrant Latino parents. With a better understanding of the aspirations, fears, and challenges faced by this community, the information can be provided in a form that is meaningful and that builds upon existing <i>funds of knowledge.</i> Critical components of the college outreach program were seeking parent input, developing a parent outreach plan, making information accessible, encouraging parent college visits, disseminating information beginning in middle school, providing personalized guidance, developing an undocumented student support plan, and creating a college-going culture. Implementing the the college access program encompassed gathering informal and formal feedback, presenting workshops, making documents available in Spanish as well as English, defining terms, arranging college visits, sending and displaying motivating communications, and engaging staff, students, and parents every step of the way.</p>

<p> Cross-border state distance higher education policy is a complex web of complicated and often contradictory regulations stretching across 50 states and 14 US territories. This study examined the applicability of strategic choice theory to state higher education policy innovation in the context of the adoption of polices that regulate the distance education operations of out-of-state, regionally accredited higher education institutions. Using Event History Analysis, the role of power structures and the political and social environment in which policy adoption decisions were made were examined alongside established policy adoption predictors. Significant applicability of strategic choice theory to state distance higher education policy adoption was identified. Findings indicate that cross-border distance higher education policy adoption diverges from established trends in state higher education policy adoption, and that public and non-public institutions have the potential to play key roles in shaping future policy adoption.</p>

<p> Because of marriage-immigrants and migrant-workers, demographic diversity has rapidly increased in South Korea since the late 1990s. Discourses of multicultural education have arisen in the field of early childhood education; they have focused on having children with diverse linguistic backgrounds adapt to Korean language and customs. What are the national goals of multicultural education policies for young children in Korea? This study investigated multicultural education policies for young children. Critical Discourse Analysis was used to examine values and hidden ideologies in policy texts. Findings demonstrate that, by borrowing and selecting favorite words from Western multicultural education models or theories, policymakers reframed early childhood multicultural education to assimilate ethnic minorities in Korea. National educational institutions functioned as the dominant form of producing and controlling the notion of multicultural family and education. It is recommended that policymakers in Korea consider experiences of teachers and voices of parents and children from culturally diverse backgrounds in developing multicultural education programs.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which teachers' academic and professional characteristics predict their classroom effectiveness, as measured by value-added indicators of their students' growth. Teachers' college transcripts, service records, and district records of classroom assignments are used to examine undergraduate content and pedagogy courses, graduate work, and professional experience; the district's own value-added indices are utilized as the measure of teacher effectiveness. The study examines a subset of 318 teachers who were continuously employed over a four-year period at one of 19 "hard-to-staff" secondary schools in one of the nation's largest school districts. The study finds that local experience and college coursework in the teacher's assigned content modestly predict the teacher's classroom effectiveness, which has implications for hiring practices in public schools.</p>