Jacqueline Gardner Livres

Caroline Hallbaker has had enough of Officer Pete Davidson's advances. When he shows up at her door, she is instantly annoyed that he is there to ask her out again. Instead, he is there to tell her that Norma Walters, a woman who has been like a mother to her, has passed away, leaving her entire fortune to Caroline and the Dansonville Gospel Tabernacle, where she was a devoted member of the congregation. When a strange man comes into town claiming to be Norma's son that was given up for adoption many years ago, Caroline and the clergy investigate this claim. The truth is worse than any of them are prepared to handle. Meanwhile, Anne has finally gotten free from an abusive marriage and with a baby on the way, she is feeling a little lost. Known as the town gossip, Caroline is a little apprehensive to take her under her wing. She only has one thing to ask herself: What would Jesus do?

This open access book examines the interrelationship of national policy, teacher effectiveness, and student outcomes with a specific emphasis on educational equity. Using data from the IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) conducted between 1995 and 2015, it investigates grade four and grade eight data to assess trends in key teacher characteristics (experience, education, preparedness, and professional development) and teacher behaviors (instructional time and instructional content), and how these relate to student outcomes. Taking advantage of national curriculum data collected by TIMSS to assess changes in curricular strategy across countries and how these may be related to changes in teacher and student factors, the study focuses on the distributional impact of curriculum and instruction on students, paying particular attention to overall inequalities and variations in socioeconomic status at the student and country level, and how such factors have altered over time. Multiple methods, including regression and fixed effects analyses, and structural equation modelling, establish the evolution of these associations over time.