Magdalene House: A Place about Mercy, (Vanderbilt University Press, 2012) by Sarah VanHooser Suiter, PhD’10, is a participant-observation account of the history of this remarkable community founded in 1997, its structure, its Thistle Farms beauty products operation, and Reverend Becca Stevens’s communal and spiritual vision. The book was developed from Suiter’s doctoral dissertation. Strength in [...]
Small Pleasures One of life’s small pleasures for me is sitting with a cup of tea on my patio relaxing in sunny California reading the Peabody Reflector. The winter 2012 issue was no exception. While I enjoy the overall format, photographs and layout of the magazine, I particularly enjoy reading the research news section. I was [...]
School Choice and School Improvement (2011, Harvard Education Press) edited by Mark Behrends, Marisa Cannata, senior research associate, and Ellen Goldring, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Education Policy and Leadership, brings together a collection of papers that examines how communities, districts and states use choice as a strategy for improving schools and student learning. [...]
The Virtue in Virtuality This is exciting and inspiring stuff! I applaud your work! One comment regarding the quote “the most effective instructional technologies are the ones that require the fewest changes in behavior on the part of the teachers and the learners” [quoted by Andy van Shaack on pages 16-17 of the Summer 2011 [...]
Reading into Reading First Data In the Winter 2010 edition of the Peabody Reflector, there is an article with the heading “Early Reading First data shows impressive gains.” This article, a summary of results of a preliminary study, describes research that appears to be seriously flawed. Based on the summary presented, it appears that the [...]
Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There: Understanding Diversity, Opportunity Gaps, and Teaching in Today’s Classrooms (Harvard Education Press, 2010) by H. Richard Milner, associate professor of education. The book details strategies for closing the achievement gap by refocusing attention on opportunity gaps to successfully teach students in diverse, urban schools. It provides a [...]
What Every 2nd Grade Teacher Needs to Know: About Setting Up and Running a Classroom (Northeast Foundation for Children, Inc., 2010) by Margaret Berry Wilson, MEd’93 and Andy Dousis. Wilson starts with a concise review of second graders’ common developmental characteristics and then shows how to adjust your classroom and your teaching to fit these [...]
The Handbook of Research on School Choice edited by Mark Berends; Matthew Springer, director of the National Center on Performance Incentives; Dale Ballou, associate professor of public policy and education; and Herbert J. Walberg, Routledge, April 2009. What difference do schools of choice make? A new book from the National Center on School Choice at [...]
Pay for performance Performance pay for teachers is indeed a viable way of improving the very stature of the profession. It has long been felt that undifferentiated, lock-step salary schedules serve equally well as disincentives. Highly motivated individuals who believe their growth and development will be impeded by preset pay scales are not likely to consider [...]
Students helping other students learn has been proven to boost academic achievement and social skills in students with and without disabilities. A new book by Vanderbilt University researchers, Peer Support Strategies for Improving All Students’ Social Lives and Learning, based on more than 20 years of research in the field, offers teachers practical guidelines for [...]
Leonard Bickman (editor). (2008). The SAGE Handbook of Social Research Methods. Sage. Leonard Bickman & D. J. Rog. (2009). The SAGE Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods. Sage. John M. Braxton. (2008). The Role of the Classroom in College Student Persistence. Jossey-Bass. G. Cartledge, R. Gardner & Donna Y. Ford. (2008). Diverse Learners with Exceptionalities: [...]
Shellie Braeuner, M.Ed.’90, (2009). The Great Dog Wash. Simon and Schuster. R.A. McWilliam and Amy Casey, B.S.’02, M.Ed.’05, Ph.D.’08. (2008). Engagement of Every Child in the Preschool Classroom. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Mary Kaye Milmoe Chryssicas, B.S.’87. (2008). Yoga for Teens. DK Publishing. Jan Irons Harris, Ed.D.’95. (2008). The Principal’s Office, A Primer for Balanced Leadership. Rowman and Littlefield Education. William L. Hooper, Ph.D.’66. (2008). Worship Leadership for Worship [...]
Passion and VISAGE I have known Brooke Vaughan since the summer before her freshman year at Vanderbilt when she visited Nashville and met my daughter, another rising freshman. They decided to room together and have been fast friends ever since. Brooke is an amazing young woman with great passion for life. I wish I could [...]