This study examined the impact that a year-round school calendar and a traditional school calendar may have on student achievement at selected elementary schools in North Central South Carolina. Specifically it investigated mean differences in academic achievement between elementary students at two year-round schools versus two traditional…

This paper describes the confirmatory factor analysis, validity, and reliability data collection stage of the development of a scale to measure mainstream teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for teaching ELL (English Language Learner) students. Data were collected from 708 K through 12 teachers and pre-service teachers with varying degrees of…

Student goal setting and academic planning has been a major focus for PUSD, with the aim of increasing the level of student engagement and student ownership over their learning. Goal setting has been implemented in conjunction with the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) tests, which provide educators with a tool…

This article describes how Balgowlah North Public School, a co-educational government primary school situated in metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia undertook a whole-school cultural transformation with a particular focus on moving beyond the teaching of English by focusing principally on literacy with a heavy emphasis upon…

The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study is to explore English reading instruction in elementary schools in China under the revised curriculum in 2001. Eleven English teachers in three elementary schools in Beijing participated in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, field observations, and documents. The…

Diversity among university students plays a significant role in raising awareness of numerous issues surrounding cultural heritage, language differences, cross-cultural collaboration, and international education. The integration of technological tools can assist students in cooperating nationally and internationally both in their current…

This technical report provides an overview of the New York State Alternate Assessment (NYSAA), including a description of the purpose of the NYSAA, the processes utilized to develop and implement the NYSAA program, and Stakeholder involvement in those processes. The purpose of this report is to document the technical aspects of the 2013-14 NYSAA.…

In many English as a Second Language (ESL) programs across the United States classroom teachers, ESL specialists, and bilingual paraprofessional share responsibility for teaching English language learners. Expectations of "shared responsibility" are constructed and negotiated through local discourses. This study explores how the roles and…

This document presents writing samples that have been annotated to illustrate the criteria required to meet the Common Core State Standards for particular types of writing--argument, informative/explanatory text, and narrative--in a given grade. Each of the samples exhibits at least the level of quality required to meet the Writing standards for…

This study examines the participation of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with labels of Learning Disability (LD) in their English, Math, and Social Studies classes. The conceptualization of LD as a biological pathology in the dominant special education discourse has contributed to normative perceptions and reductionistic…

Transfer articulation is an important policy issue in Virginia. With increasing economic strains on federal and state budgets, pressure on key actors in higher education, and critical teacher shortages, an opportunity presented itself to investigate state transfer policy and articulation agreements designed to facilitate student transfer.…

This report summarizes analyses of whether results from Austin Independent School District's students' Spring 2008 state-mandated academic assessments are related to their results on a fitness assessment.

The information technology (IT) of today forms an integral part of everyday living, thus the nurture of children's IT awareness early in life is crucial. Young children have an innate curiosity for IT which suggests that in the school environment it can easily be integrated with other subjects in thematic and interdisciplinary curriculum. This…

"With the NLS--they can see how everything is important if we want our English to be good and it's helped me to see it that way too. Before, we just used to see it all separately. This way is much better" (Rebecca Graham, Year 4 English specialist after Final Block Placement). This quote was collected in the final stage of a study involving…

This paper analyzes pedagogic practice in primary and secondary Singaporean English classrooms in terms of dialogicity. The dominant interactional patterns in Singaporean English classrooms are initiation-response-evaluation (IRE), whole class lecture and individual seatwork in which the students give either one word answers or remain silent.…