Aubrey Scheopner Torres

• Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction
• Professor at Saint Anselm College

Teachers have a powerful impact on student achievement, yet high attrition rates hinder the ability of schools to provide quality instruction. Attrition rates are highest for schools serving low income, minority students and among small private schools. This review of research seeks to understand why teachers leave, examining different teaching con...

To understand how dominant messages about race and effective pedagogy impact teacherbeliefs and practice, this study employs critical race theory (CRT) in a case study analysis ofRebecca Rosenberg, a mid-career entrant into the teaching profession who was terminated fromher first job before the end of her district's probationary period. Despite bel...

Competency education, a K–12 reform aimed to ensure that all students meet high expectations, requires that students demonstrate mastery of competencies to advance and earn credit, typically through assessments where students apply knowledge. Students receive more time and possibly personalized instruction to demonstrate mastery if needed. Competen...

Catholic institutions of higher education are called to form citizens who fight against injustice, including persistent racial oppression. To do this, Catholic, public, and other private institutions must provide students opportunities to learn about and confront racism (Johnston, 2014). It is important that these institutions confront these issues...

High teacher attrition rates hinder schools in their ability to provide quality instruction. While studies have identified factors related to attrition (e.g., salary, administrative support) and the emotions of teaching, research is needed that explores the impact of emotions on teachers’ career decisions. This study examines the emotional experien...

How do race and lived experiences of this construct impact student theological understandings? We embarked on a joint pedagogical venture spanning two continents about race and theology with groups of students whose encounters with race and its impacts on theology were markedly different—including students whose lives and education have been formed...

Many states in the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands Region have started to consider and implement competency-based learning as a secondary school reform to increase graduation rates and ensure that students have the skills and knowledge for postsecondary success. In competency-based learning, students demonstrate mastery of a d...

Educators in the rural Northeast Region report challenges in implementing the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). Using administrator interviews and teacher survey data from selected rural districts in Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, this report offers insight into how state, district, and school administrators can hel...

High teacher attrition rates hinder schools in their ability to provide quality instruction. This study seeks to understand why teachers leave early in their careers (within the first 5 years) using a mixed methods approach that combined 50 in-depth interviews with 15 public and 10 Catholic school teachers in the United States who left early with s...

In contrast to current education policies that conceptualize pupil learning largely in terms of standardized exam scores, we offer an alternative view, one that conceives of pupil learning as a source of insight for pupils and teachers alike. Drawing on survey data and a qualitative study of the teacher candidate experience, we explore the allowing...

Urban Catholic schools in the United States have been shown to be particularly effective at increasing student achievement, especially among minority students and disadvantaged students. Unfortunately many of these schools have been forced to close due to financial struggle, as enrollments and parish subsidies decrease and the costs of education in...

In the USA over 220 Catholic schools closed in 2006, many of which were in urban areas, leaving a number of parents, students, and teachers forced to find new schools. Financial troubles are affl icting Catholic schools around the country as parish subsidies decrease and school enrollments drop, while the costs of educating students in Catholic sch...

The Ethical Teacher by Elizabeth Campbell reviews the importance of ethical decision making and ethical knowledge in teaching where teachers make conscious ethical or moral decisions to provide students with role models of ethical decision makers, instill ethics and morals in students and colleagues, and help professionalize the field of teaching....

This article reviews: Bohlin, K.E., Farmer, D., & Ryan, K. (2001) Building character in schools: Resource guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.