This executive summary report highlights Austin Independent School District English learner students' (ELs) state-required English language proficiency test performance on the 2018 Spring administration. Student performance is summarized by domain and composite ratings, and years in U.S. schools. The changes made to the test are also discussed. A…

Inquiry-based science interventions aim to improve students' science proficiency by helping them understand scientific processes. In these interventions, students conduct hands-on investigations of science concepts and everyday phenomena, construct explanations for what they observe, consider alternative explanations, and communicate and justify…

Inquiry-based science interventions aim to improve students' science proficiency by helping them understand scientific processes. In these interventions, students conduct hands-on investigations of science concepts and everyday phenomena, construct explanations for what they observe, consider alternative explanations, and communicate and justify…

This report describes the Achieve 180 Program in Year 3, the last of the three years initially planned for this comprehensive program. The 54 participating schools received Texas Education Agency campus accountability ratings of "Improvement Required" (IR), "Not Rated," or "Former Improvement Required". The 2019-2020…

The present study used multiple regression analyses to examine the relationships between fifth-grade social skills and eighth-grade academic achievement. Data were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K). Results indicated no relationship between positive or negative social behavior in fifth grade…

In response to the continued pressure placed on American public schools to increase academic achievement, some schools have begun to reorganize instructional environments in an effort to improve student outcomes. The current study examined one such elementary school that implemented a departmentalized model of instruction in fourth and fifth-grade…

Martha Haakmat writes in this article that in some ways she understands why parents might have a harder time understanding why Montessori is education at its best, especially as their children progress past preschool. Haakmat goes on to say that the learning path at Montessori schools is more proactive. Montessori schools ask that parents partner…

The theme of this year was educate to liberate. A reminder to the literacy community that education, and literacy extend beyond the content and courses we teach. As Freire puts it, "Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are…

The Resilient Outstanding Sisters Exemplifying Success (ROSES) program was implemented in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) during the 2019-2020 school year. The program targeted female students of color through psychosocial support and school-based mentoring by leveraging community resources, partnerships, and advocacy. A total of…

Wordless picturebooks may be better defined by what they do contain--visually rendered narratives--rather than what they do not contain. This column challenges traditional ways of looking at wordless picturebooks and offers a few approaches for integrating wordless picturebooks into a wider range of classrooms, preschool through middle school.

This chapter situates fraction learning within the integrated theory of numerical development. We argue that the understanding of numerical magnitudes for whole numbers as well as for fractions is critical to fraction learning in particular and mathematics achievement more generally. Results from the Delaware Longitudinal Study, which examined…

In this study, I explored children's development of rhythmic music literacy using a language acquisition paradigm. An emergent, constructivist curriculum was implemented over one academic year with 39 children, 5-8 years old. Children were involved in audiation-based active listening, singing, moving, chanting, and playing instruments and engaged…

We employed data from a longitudinal investigation of over 1,000 children who participated in Tulsa's universal school-based pre-K program in 2005, and path modeling techniques, to examine the contribution of pre-K classroom quality to both kindergarten- and middle-school academic skills. We also examined gender and income-related differences in…

In Texas, English language learner (ELL) students are assessed annually in academic subject areas using the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) at elementary and middle school levels. This supplemental report describes continuously enrolled Austin Independent School District ELLs' performance as compared with all AISD…

This article examines associations between child care subsidy use in early childhood and children's middle school outcomes. Using a unique database linking administrative records of child care subsidy receipt with parental earnings, social assistance data, and students' public school outcomes, we generate quasi-experimental estimates of subsidy…