For over a quarter of a century the problem of losing church members has progressively increased. Today the situation is so bad that less than one-third of the members in some churches attend worship services. Church leaders are crying for help.In an effort to help church leaders, the Billy Graham School of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary conducted a massive research project involving nearly 287 churches. The most revealing aspect of the study was that the higher expectations placed on members, the greater the likelihood that the members would stay and be involved with the church. Using the data gathered from this project, Thom Rainer presents the first-ever comprehensive study about 'closing the back door.' Rainer looks at why people are leaving the church and how church leaders can keep the members.

We constantly hear cries from politicians for teachers to have high expectations. But what this means in practical terms is never spelled out. Simply deciding that as a teacher you will expect all your students to achieve more than other classes you have taught in the same school, is not going to translate automatically into enhanced achievement for students. Becoming a High Expectation Teacher is a book that every education student, training or practising teacher, should read. It details the beliefs and practices of high expectation teachers – teachers who have high expectations for all their students – and provides practical examples for teachers of how to change classrooms into ones in which all students are expected to learn at much higher levels than teachers may previously have thought possible. It shows how student achievement can be raised by providing both research evidence and practical examples. This book is based on the first ever intervention study in the teacher expectation area, designed to change teachers’ expectations through introducing them to the beliefs and practices of high expectation teachers. A holistic view of the classroom is emphasised whereby both the instructional and socio-emotional aspects of the classroom are considered if teachers are to increase student achievement. There is a focus on high expectation teachers, those who have high expectations for all students, and a close examination of what it is that these teachers do in their classrooms that mean that their students make very large learning gains each year. Becoming a High Expectation Teacher explores three key areas in which what high expectation teachers do differs substantially from what other teachers do: the way they group students for learning, the way they create a caring classroom community, and the way in which they use goalsetting to motivate students, to promote student autonomy and to promote mastery learning. Areas covered include:- Formation of teacher expectations Teacher personality and expectation Ability grouping and goal setting Enhancing class climate Sustaining high expectations for students Becoming a High Expectation Teacher is an essential read for any researcher, student, trainee or practicing teacher who cares passionately about the teacher-student relationship and about raising expectations and student achievement.

Despite growing evidence that all students will benefit from engaging and challenging instruction, many struggling students continue to experience a circumscribed curriculum that emphasizes low-level skills. Featuring contributions from emerging and well-known researchers, this important volume is about the enactment of high-expectation curricula in everyday practice. Chapters document specific classroom strategies that make a difference in the learning of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and cultural and linguistic minority communities. While the book focuses on language and literacy instruction, key chapters on math and science also demonstrate high-expectation teaching across the curriculum. Book Features: A broad framework for creating high-expectation curricula in underperforming K12 schools, clear illustrations of what alternative literacy practices look like, powerful examples of rich math and science instruction, research-based strategies for second language learners, students with disabilities, and struggling readers, an incisive critique of the "deficit-driven" curricula that dominates in underachieving schools and classrooms.

'Chris James, Michael Connolly, Gerald Dunning and Tony Elliott have produced a comprehensive analysis of the very effective primary school. Although the research for the book draws on the authors’ experiences in Welsh Primary Schools, the range of literature cited and the analytical frameworks employed ensure that their findings have a much broader relevance. They define ‘a very effective’ school as one that provides high levels of attainment and rich educational experiences despite being located in extremely challenging circumstances. A key insight of the book is that although these schools are consequently ‘extraordinary’ their practice was in many ways quite ‘ordinary’. This is because these schools worked in much the same way as the very best of schools have always done. In many ways, this as the authors note, is an optimistic message – that all children deserve to be educated in such very effective schools. The virtue of How Very Effective Primary Schools Work is that it makes clear those characteristics and strategies that can help every school to become great' - David Hopkins, HSBC iNet Chair of International Leadership, and formerly Chief Adviser on School Standards to the Secretary of State 2002-2005 'All children, especially the poorest, deserve capable, mature and well adjusted teachers and leaders who work together to lay firm foundations of learning and behaviour, then enrich and elevate everyone's learning far beyond that in optimistic cultures of security, persistence and hope. Based on solid research from 18 outstanding schools in challenging circumstances, this is the vital message of this important and unique book. Chris James and his colleagues show that highly effective schools need high functioning adults and communities who expect and get the best from everyone, dedicate themselves to others without burning themselves out, are not frightened of challenges and contradictions, stay around to fulfil their obligations to others and see their efforts bear fruit, and are emotionally comfortable in their own skin. If you want to become more effective as a school you will need to become more effective and adjusted as a teacher, a leader and an all-round human being. This inspiring and indispensable book, will stir and steer all who read it in that educationally essential quest' - Andy Hargreaves, Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education, Boston College All good teachers and headteachers are concerned with improving pupil attainment. In high attainment schools, they must recognize how to sustain success. In schools with low attainment levels, they must come to understand the challenges they face and find ways of overcoming the difficulties. This practical, research-based book describes the key approaches used by very effective schools. The authors explain how success can be achieved and maintained and describe ways of working that bring about high levels of pupil attainment. They also explain why these ways of working are successful. This book is essential reading for headteachers, teachers, students of educational leadership and management, school governors, and those who work in local authorities.

This book offers a comprehensive, up-to-date review of the recent professional developments of teachers of English in the western region of China in the context of English language teaching reform and teacher education reform. It discusses a wealth of theories, frameworks, qualitative case studies and quantitative investigations, while also covering a range of key practices that are indispensable. It equips readers with an in-depth understanding of the impact of the current curriculum reform on the promotion of teachers’ cognition, emotions, attitudes and awareness of their self-development, as well as teachers’ corresponding efforts to update their educational concepts, reassess their teacher roles, enhance their teaching skills, and implement new approaches to their professional development. It is a valuable resource for anyone pursuing research in this field as well as in-service teachers, teacher educators and education administrators. And as it offers practical help for the potential difficulties and challenges they might encounter, it is also a must-read for the student teachers of English.

Over the last few years, social and emotional skills have been rising on the education policy agenda and in the public debate. Policy makers and education practitioners are seeking ways to complement the focus on academic learning, with attention to social and emotional skill development.

Kaplan's GRE Prep Plus 2023 guides you through the GRE step-by-step, with expert strategies, essential content review, and five online practice tests. Get an advantage on test day with our proven test-taking strategies, math skills review, and one-year access to online practice and lesson plans. The Best Practice Five full-length online tests help you practice in the same computer-based format you'll see on test day. One full-length practice test included in the book for when online is not an option. Online resources including two mini tests, one math and one verbal, online to help you get off to a fast start More than 1,500 questions with detailed explanations. Video explanations of selected questions. 500-question online Qbank that lets you select problems by topic and difficulty and customize your practice. Chapters on each GRE question type and math skill, with practice sets for each. Questions have been reviewed, revised, and updated by Kaplan's expert faculty. Expert Guidance Online study-planning tool helps you target your prep no matter how much time you have before the test. We know the test: Our learning engineers have put tens of thousands of hours into studying the GRE, and we use real data to design the most effective strategies and study plans. Kaplan's books and practice questions are written by veteran teachers who know students—every explanation is written to help you learn. We invented test prep—Kaplan (kaptest.com) has been helping students prepare for the tests for over 80 years and we offer some of the best-selling books on GRE prep, GED, SAT, and ACT test prep, MCAT study guides, and more. Want to boost your studies with even more online practice and in-depth GRE math and verbal workbooks? Try Kaplan's GRE Complete 2023.

A Stanford University Press classic.

In the wake of recent global crises, the reconstruction of education models remains urgent. Education system resilience for sustainable development and societal well-being emerges as educational institutions aim to reimagine their current models. Building resilient education models involves infrastructure fortification while fostering adaptability and inclusivity within learning environments. By harnessing technological advancements, embracing innovative pedagogies, and prioritizing equitable access to education, communities can effectively recover from crises. Building Resilient Education Models Post Crisis explores strategies for education resilience across institutions. It provides various models in education technology transformation and inclusive classroom practices. This book covers topics such as diversity and inclusion, education sociology, and crisis management, and is a useful resource for education professionals, professors, teachers, psychologists, business owners, academicians, and researchers.

With the growing popularity of “big data”, the potential value of personal data has attracted more and more attention. Applications built on personal data can create tremendous social and economic benefits. Meanwhile, they bring serious threats to individual privacy. The extensive collection, analysis and transaction of personal data make it difficult for an individual to keep the privacy safe. People now show more concerns about privacy than ever before. How to make a balance between the exploitation of personal information and the protection of individual privacy has become an urgent issue. In this book, the authors use methodologies from economics, especially game theory, to investigate solutions to the balance issue. They investigate the strategies of stakeholders involved in the use of personal data, and try to find the equilibrium. The book proposes a user-role based methodology to investigate the privacy issues in data mining, identifying four different types of users, i.e. four user roles, involved in data mining applications. For each user role, the authors discuss its privacy concerns and the strategies that it can adopt to solve the privacy problems. The book also proposes a simple game model to analyze the interactions among data provider, data collector and data miner. By solving the equilibria of the proposed game, readers can get useful guidance on how to deal with the trade-off between privacy and data utility. Moreover, to elaborate the analysis on data collector’s strategies, the authors propose a contract model and a multi-armed bandit model respectively. The authors discuss how the owners of data (e.g. an individual or a data miner) deal with the trade-off between privacy and utility in data mining. Specifically, they study users’ strategies in collaborative filtering based recommendation system and distributed classification system. They built game models to formulate the interactions among data owners, and propose learning algorithms to find the equilibria.