This book provides solutions to the vexing educational challenges that rural communities face and serves as a how-to guide for building college and career readiness within rural schools. Rural America's Pathways to College and Career shares practical tips that can be used by educators and community members to transform rural schools, help students develop essential skills, locate and train college- and career-ready advisors, establish business partnerships, build college readiness, leverage technology, build interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers, and understand how to pay for college. Based on research and drawing on best practice and poignant stories, Dalton shares examples of success and challenges from interviews conducted with over 200 individuals who have participated in programs across the country. By helping rural youth learn about the opportunities available and by providing them with the support they need to succeed, this book serves as an actionable guide to helping students in rural schools attain postsecondary school success.

In the United States, 1,200 community colleges enroll over ten million students each year—nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates. Yet fewer than 40 percent of entrants complete an undergraduate degree within six years. This fact has put pressure on community colleges to improve academic outcomes for their students. Redesigning America’s Community Colleges is a concise, evidence-based guide for educational leaders whose institutions typically receive short shrift in academic and policy discussions. It makes a compelling case that two-year colleges can substantially increase their rates of student success, if they are willing to rethink the ways in which they organize programs of study, support services, and instruction. Community colleges were originally designed to expand college enrollments at low cost, not to maximize completion of high-quality programs of study. The result was a cafeteria-style model in which students pick courses from a bewildering array of choices, with little guidance. The authors urge administrators and faculty to reject this traditional model in favor of “guided pathways”—clearer, more educationally coherent programs of study that simplify students’ choices without limiting their options and that enable them to complete credentials and advance to further education and the labor market more quickly and at less cost. Distilling a wealth of data amassed from the Community College Research Center (Teachers College, Columbia University), Redesigning America’s Community Colleges offers a fundamental redesign of the way two-year colleges operate, stressing the integration of services and instruction into more clearly structured programs of study that support every student’s goals.

Practical solutions for improving higher education opportunities for disadvantaged students Too many disadvantaged college students in America do not complete their coursework or receive any college credential, while others earn degrees or certificates with little labor market value. Large numbers of these students also struggle to pay for college, and some incur debts that they have difficulty repaying. The authors provide a new review of the causes of these problems and offer promising policy solutions. The circumstances affecting disadvantaged students stem both from issues on the individual side, such as weak academic preparation and financial pressures, and from institutional failures. Low-income students disproportionately attend schools that are underfunded and have weak performance incentives, contributing to unsatisfactory outcomes for many students. Some solutions, including better financial aid or academic supports, target individual students. Other solutions, such as stronger linkages between coursework and the labor market and more structured paths through the curriculum, are aimed at institutional reforms. All students, and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, also need better and varied pathways both to college and directly to the job market, beginning in high school. We can improve college outcomes, but must also acknowledge that we must make hard choices and face difficult tradeoffs in the process. While no single policy is guaranteed to greatly improve college and career outcomes, implementing a number of evidence-based policies and programs together has the potential to improve these outcomes substantially.

Co-Learning in Higher Education addresses topics critical to the future of higher education: the wellbeing of communities, engagement of scholars supporting new generations of social activists, and the renewal and expansion of educational and career pathways. It develops a theory of co-learning that engages students and professors across generations in partnerships with community organizations, schools, and corporations that solve emerging social and environmental challenges. Collaboratively written cases discuss community projects, engaging pedagogies, and action research projects. These co-cases demonstrate the power of using critical pedagogies and social action within troubling contexts, rather than assuming public policy changes are the only solution. Contributors explore mentoring, discuss pedagogies that promote community wellbeing and equity, address the urgency of change in universities, and reflect on the implications of this chaotic period for empowering social agency among youth in rising generations. This is a timely volume for scholars and students in higher education and educational policy.

With the ever-changing, complex role of the principalship, school leaders are thirsty for a useful desk reference that aligns with professional standards. This actionable book brings the PSEL standards to life, providing leaders with support, mentorship, and practical advice. This book provides solutions to challenges and answers the hard questions associated with educational leadership alongside a host of tools, strategies, organizers, templates, and rubrics. Including voices from experienced leaders across rural, urban, suburban, tribal, and international settings, this book helps principals at all levels navigate challenges and make decisions that positively impact their students’ futures. You will be inspired to strive for a better future for your school community as you continually develop skills leading to a long, successful career in educational leadership.

This resource elucidates and helps teachers navigate the international school recruitment world. Designed for current or aspiring international school educators, this practical resource explores current issues that are relevant to the unique needs of teachers when they transition to the international school sector. Full of experience-based tips, insights, and stories from principals, curriculum coordinators, directors, school counselors, department heads, support specialists, advisors, and classroom teachers, this book explores the topics of wanderlust, English language teaching, identity and belonging, curricular standards, inclusion, diversity, and equity. Whether you are a student or novice teacher plotting career options, a new international school hire, or an experienced educator looking for a rewarding change, this valuable resource will help you prepare as you embark on what is often considered "the best kept secret" in education.

This practical guide for educational leaders explores how you can transform your school or district into a vibrant center of learning and socio-ecological responsibility with only three manageable actions: taking students outside, bringing nature inside, and cultivating a mindset of awareness, responsibility, and empathy. This book is rich in practical, attainable approaches and stories of real actions taken by leaders, teachers, parents, and community partners to design, lead, and manage a vibrant, flourishing, sustainable learning community. Authors Uline and Kensler take you on an inspirational journey through nine key leadership strategies for you to begin or expand your work towards whole school sustainability.

What does it take to prepare students, teachers, and school staff to shape a just and sustainable future? In Trailblazers for Whole School Sustainability, you will meet educators and school leaders who are on the front lines of re-imagining school through the lens of sustainability. This book features inspiring stories from around the country, from urban and rural schools and districts, that highlight best practices and lessons learned from teachers, administrators, and students as they transformed their school communities for a just and sustainable future. These stories are structured around a practical framework that demonstrates how this work allows schools and districts to work smarter, not harder, by integrating sustainability and systems thinking into leadership; curriculum and instruction; culture and climate; and facilities and operations. While each school and district’s story in this book is different, the passion that drives each one to embrace sustainability in everything they do, from operations to curriculum, remains the same. Trailblazers for Whole School Sustainability shows what is possible when educators resolve to blaze a trail to re-imagine K-12 education for a just and sustainable future.

This book helps school and district leaders avoid the pitfalls that await those making sense of their school’s data. Whether you're interpreting achievement gaps, graduation rates or test results, you're at risk of reaching a mistaken judgment. By learning about common errors and how they’re made, you'll be ready to choose safer, surer paths to making better sense of the wealth of data in your school or district. The authors help educators build better evidence, see conclusions more clearly, and explain the data more persuasively. Special features Include: "Questions to Spark Discussion" in each chapter encourage school site, district leaders, and board trustees to apply each chapter’s content to their own situations. Data visualizations, together with the authors’ interpretations, will help you learn how to do visual analysis (and reach the right conclusions). Practical tips provide clear guidance. Supplemental resources can be found at the book’s website, k12measures.com, including interactive data visualizations and analytic exercises to help you learn a concept by "doing."

This book provides a variety of strategies for creating, grading, and using assessments in the virtual setting. With more teaching and learning taking place online, teachers are adjusting their strategies for creating, grading, and using virtual assessments. This strategies-based book helps you understand the key challenges and solutions to delivering virtual assessments, including use of quizzes, digital worksheets, grading, preventing cheating, and considerations of equity, quality, choice, and efficiency. Designed so that you can pick it up and start reading from any chapter, this book covers topics such as: how to create, grade, and use traditional forms of assessment in the virtual space; how to leverage discussion for meaningful learning in the virtual classroom; how to create, grade, and use virtual performances and projects; digital tools that may be helpful in engaging with and assessing students in the virtual environment. Based on research and full of practical examples, this book guides educators, professional learning teams, and whole schools in implementing a successful virtual assessment plan for all types of intended learning objectives.