This publication¿the latest report from AAC&U¿s Liberal Education and America¿s Promise (LEAP) initiative¿defines a set of educational practices that research has demonstrated have a significant impact on student success. Author George Kuh presents data from the National Survey of Student Engagement about these practices and explains why they benefit all students, but also seem to benefit underserved students even more than their more advantaged peers. The report also presents data that show definitively that underserved students are the least likely students, on average, to have access to these practices.

This book reports on research and practice on computational thinking and the effect it is having on education worldwide, both inside and outside of formal schooling. With coding becoming a required skill in an increasing number of national curricula (e.g., the United Kingdom, Israel, Estonia, Finland), the ability to think computationally is quickly becoming a primary 21st century “basic” domain of knowledge. The authors of this book investigate how this skill can be taught and its resultant effects on learning throughout a student's education, from elementary school to adult learning.

The first year of college represents an enormous milestone in students' lives. Whether attending a four-year or two-year institution of higher education, living on campus or at home, or enrolled in a highly selective school or a college with an open-admissions policy, students are challenged in unique and demanding ways during their first year. Although many students rise to the challenges they face, for some the demands are too great. Retention rates beyond the first year are disappointing: one third of first-year students seriously consider leaving college during their first term, and ultimately one half of all students who start college complete it. What are the factors that impact students during their first year? How can the academic and social experiences of first-year students be optimized? What can we do to improve retention rates to maximize the number of students who complete college? Improving the First Year of College employs a variety of perspectives from leading researchers and student-service providers to address these questions and examine the first year of college. This volume also highlights the development of learning communities and coaching, as well as how technology impacts students' first year. Perhaps most important, the book provides examples of "best practices," as determined through research by leaders in the field, to permit educators to draw on their experiences.

An examination of the first year of college and the intersecting challenges facing today's students, written by top educational researchers.

Action Research for Classrooms, Schools, and Communities is a core textbook for the action research course. This book addresses the trend toward high-stakes testing and teacher accountability by focusing on understanding student outcomes. With edTPA rapidly becoming part of the requirements for teacher certification, teacher preparation programs will increasingly be looking to measure the impact of the teacher candidate on student learning. The book focuses on the potential for action research to lead to greater understanding about student outcomes from the perspective of teachers, school leaders, and community members. There is a special emphasis on helping pre-service and experienced teachers use action research to understand their impact on student learning. There is an emphasis on using action research to understand community impacts on schools; unlike other books, this text acknowledges the complex ecology linking classrooms, schools, and the community, especially regarding issues fundamental to school reform.

How appropriate for today and for the future are the policies and practices of higher education that largely assume a norm of traditional-age students with minimal on-campus, or no, work commitments?Despite the fact that work is a fundamental part of life for nearly half of all undergraduate students – with a substantial number of “traditional” dependent undergraduates in employment, and working independent undergraduates averaging 34.5 hours per week – little attention has been given to how working influences the integration and engagement experiences of students who work, especially those who work full-time, or how the benefits and costs of working differ between traditional age-students and adult students.The high, and increasing, prevalence and intensity of working among both dependent and independent students raises a number of important questions for public policymakers, college administrators, faculty, academic advisors, student services and financial aid staff, and institutional and educational researchers, including: Why do so many college students work so many hours? What are the characteristics of undergraduates who work? What are the implications of working for students’ educational experiences and outcomes? And, how can public and institutional policymakers promote the educational success of undergraduate students who work? This book offers the most complete and comprehensive conceptualization of the “working college student” available. It provides a multi-faceted picture of the characteristics, experiences, and challenges of working college students and a more complete understanding of the heterogeneity underlying the label “undergraduates who work” and the implications of working for undergraduate students’ educational experiences and outcomes. The volume stresses the importance of recognizing the value and contribution of adult learners to higher education, and takes issue with the appropriateness of the term “non-traditional” itself, both because of the prevalence of this group, and because it allows higher education institutions to avoid considering changes that will meet the needs of this population, including changes in course offerings, course scheduling, financial aid, and pedagogy.

There is a renaissance in the use of the term “scholarship,” as it is being used to define areas of academic endeavour, describe academic work and achievements, and measure the quality of higher education. Although all academicians are required to engage in scholarship, it is difficult to navigate as there is a misunderstanding of this concept as new methods and approaches emerge. Emerging Methods and Paradigms in Scholarship and Education Research is an essential academic book that is designed to explain the areas of scholarship and their contemporary relationship to key components of academic work: research, teaching, service, and engagement. The chapter authors explore conceptions of scholarship, paradigms, and methods that fit a variety of contexts and needs. Highlighting a wide range of approaches from scientific realism and neo-positivism to interpretative, transformative, and pragmatic educational strategies and policy, this book is ideal for researchers, teachers, educational leaders, academicians, educational policymakers, and quality assurance agencies.