Education Commons^™

Students' Perspectives On Their High School Experience, Kathleen M. Cauley, Carl Chafin, Janine Certo

MERC Publications

This study explored what it is like to be a high school student today. Our purpose was to describe the extent to which the schools in the metropolitan area are meeting the needs of their diverse body of students.

Knowing whether disengagement and alienation are widespread is important if we are to determine whether systemic change is needed or a more localized approach that targets particular students. We looked at those internal (school) factors related to instructional time; non-instructional time in school, extracurricular activities and school climate that help or hinder students’ perceived levels of engagement. Obtaining a snapshot of …

Retaining Quality Teachers, Janine Certo, Jill Englebright Fox

MERC Publications

At this time, when the need for good teachers and good teaching is unprecedented, America is experiencing a shortage of qualified individuals prepared to take on the challenges of the profession, particularly in critical shortage areas, such as math and science or special education. Moreover, there is continuing concern that processionals are leaving the teaching field much earlier in their careers than are professionals from other fields. The National Center for Education Statistics (1997c) reports that across the nation 9.3% of public school teachers leave their positions within their first three years of teaching. Additionally, nearly 30% of teachers leave …

Retaining Teachers Across The Professional Continuum: A Review Of Literature, Jill Englebright Fox, Janine Certo

MERC Publications

Teacher induction is best understood in the larger context of teacher education. The education of teachers is a continuum of on-going activities and experiences, including pre-service preparation, induction, and in-service development.

Viewed in this context, it is clear that programs addressing the induction period (induction and mentoring programs) need to function as logical extensions of the preservice program and as entry pieces in a larger career-long professional development program. Induction programs acknowledge that beginning teachers have recently completed teacher-preparation programs. Such support enables beginning teachers to continue to develop their teaching skills while confronting the adjustment difficulties often encountered during …

Dropping Out: Why Students Leave School, Joseph R. Boyle

MERC Publications

Previous research has indicated that students permanently leave school for a number of reasons including low grades, overage, high absentee rate, behavior problems, pregnancy, work, family problems, or drugs/alcohol. While many of these factors are often described in nebulous terms, the purpose of this study was to examine specific academic factors within the classroom that lead up to students’ permanent departure from school, and to learn firsthand, from students who have dropped out of school.

The purpose of this study was to use qualitative in-depth interviews of students who had left school for academic reasons, to identify specific factors in …

The Effectiveness Of Remedial School Summer Programs: Review Of Literature And Annotated Bibliography, James H. Mcmillan, Dawn Bonanno Fitzelle

MERC Publications

Summer School has been an integral part of American education for many years. Historically, summer school was used to prevent delinquency, to keep children “off the streets.” While this function is still served, the purposes of summer school now include academic enrichment, summer employment for teachers, supervision for children during the summer months for working parents, the mitigation of summer learning loss, and what can be termed remediation of student knowledge and skills to meet higher academic standards (Hirschman, 2000; New York State United Teachers, 1999; The National Assembly of Health and Human Service Organizations, 2000). For some students, summer …