The overall goal of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is to have all students--100 percent--achieving at proficient levels by 2014. Between now and 2014, states, districts, and schools must take a series of specific steps toward that goal. The law requires that educators focus intensively on challenging academic standards and assessments in…

This article presents research on the frequency of reading comprehension instruction in secondary content-area classrooms. In 2,400 minutes of direct classroom observation, only 3% of instructional time was allotted to coaching middle and high school readers on the reading comprehension strategies essential to understanding informational text.…

A first-year seminar general education course provides a good opportunity to search for mathematical topics associated with the popular culture represented in the course's required films and readings. We discuss mathematical connections to several books, including "Life of Pi" and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," and to the…

This article discusses methods for evaluating students' content-area literacy skills. Four specific factors that affect content-area literacy are described: vocabulary knowledge, topic knowledge, text structure knowledge, and textbook readability, along with methods of evaluating each of the factors. Most of these methods have not yet been…

RAuthor Rebecca Olness combines her love of children's literature and her experience as a classroom teacher and literacy specialist to show teachers that it is possible to teach both content and literacy concepts simultaneously. Chapters cover social studies, science, mathematics, and the arts. In these pages readers will find rationale and…

This study examines second-term and second-year persistence of 19,489 freshmen at American River College (ARC), a large, urban, public community college near Sacramento, California. Academic and non-academic characteristics are compared between first year dropouts and those students that enroll one year after the first fall term at ARC for two…

Objectives: The purpose of this investigation was to complete a formal evaluation of Reading Across My Pyramid (RAMP), a literacy promoting nutrition and health education curriculum. Methods: To meet this need, a short survey, the "Child Survey," based on topics covered in RAMP lessons was developed and tested for clarity in a group of…

Multiple states set coursework in content area literacy as a requirement for secondary teacher licensure. This paper discusses the author's Content Area Reading and Writing course at the University of Louisville, designed for secondary preservice teachers who are in a range of disciplines: secondary English, science, mathematics, foreign language,…

Hand-in-hand with the current renewed emphasis on student success and a resurgence of Writing Across the Curriculum, instructors in all disciplines need to refocus on Reading Across the Curriculum to address students' needs, to achieve instructional goals, and to prepare citizens for full participation in our democracy. It seems clear that a…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "A Plan for Success": Alliance Joins Nine National Organizations Representing Communities of Color in Historic Campaign for…

This practical resource offers more than 40 strategies that teachers in all content areas can use to help students--including English learners and struggling readers--understand new words, phrases, and concepts. Far more than best means of teaching specific words, these strategies will tap students' curiosity, engage and empower them, develop…

Although reading is a critical part of science and science learning, it is no longer a part of many children's elementary science instruction. This is of concern because girls often develop strong identities as readers, but do not develop scientific identities with ease. In this study, we investigate girls' science reading to know (1) if science…

The language used to construct knowledge, beliefs, and worldviews in school science is distinct from the social language that students use in their everyday ordinary life. This difference is a major source of reading difficulty for many students, especially struggling readers and English-language learners. This article identifies some of the…

Noble High School, a large school located in rural southern Maine, embraces the concept of smaller learning communities, and its more than 1,100 students are heterogeneously grouped into teams. Although Noble was recently cited as a model of rural education (NASSP, 2004), its students nevertheless struggle to develop important literacy skills. On…

In recent years discussions surrounding early childhood curriculum has focused on the movement from developmental to sociocultural theory. A further area worthy of investigation involves the role of content in early childhood education, specifically the relationship between content, context and pedagogy. The paper draws on teacher vignettes to…