This school-based reflective narrative explores how one inner London primary school raised their awareness of the language needs of Advanced Bilingual Learners (ABL) through an emphasis on developing and celebrating pupils' first language skills alongside English. It stresses the central role of the teacher in planning language learning…

MUSSI is the name of a she-cat from an imaginary story invented and told by children from two elementary schools through different performing modalities. It is also the name of a pilot project of Applied Ethnomusicology funded by a major Portuguese Company, SONAE Sierra, through the local Loures Shopping Centre, which paid for the musical…

In late 2010, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) initiated a new safety program called the "Culture of Calm" initiative (CoC). Since 2010, CPS has focused resources on schools in order to improve school climate--particularly school safety. These resources were used, to a large extent, to hire vendors that provided services to teachers and…

The need for successful nutrition interventions is critical as the prevalence of childhood obesity increases. Thus, this pilot project examines the effect of a nutrition education program, "Color My Pyramid", on children's nutrition knowledge, self-care practices, activity levels, and nutrition status. Using a pretest-posttest,…

This technical brief examines whether, after two years of implementation, schools in Massachusetts using quarterly benchmark exams aligned with state standards in middle school mathematics showed greater gains in student achievement than those not doing so. A quasi-experimental design, using covariate matching and comparative interrupted…

A basic need for a child is to belong to a group (Maslow, 1970). Groups help children: to develop relationships and to foster individual mental health (Johnson and Johnson, 1989); and disabled and non-disabled children, when given assistance, can develop relationships with each other (Sideris, 1998). But there are very few opportunities in Cyprus…

Despite the growing interest in 1:1 computing initiatives, relatively little empirical research has focused on the outcomes of these investments. The current special edition of the Journal of Technology and Assessment presents four empirical studies of K-12 1:1 computing programs and one review of key themes in the conversation about 1:1 computing…

Rayenne Dekhinet, Keith Topping, David Duran, and Silvia Blanch describe a pilot project on the use of Internet-assisted reciprocal peer tutoring in foreign-language learning. The eight-week project connected Spanish-speaking English-language learners at a primary school in Catalonia with English-speaking Spanish-language learners at a Scottish…

The school curricula are widely believed to be the best vehicle for generating public awareness of and action related to areas of energy concern. In an attempt to build the capacity of schools to address key environmental issues in Ethiopia, a pilot project had been designed in 2004. The principal aim of the project was to bring about positive…

Gifted pupils differ from their age-mates with respect to development potential, actual competencies, self-regulatory capabilities, and learning styles in one or more domains of competence. The question is how to design and develop education that fits and further supports such characteristics and competencies of gifted pupils. Analysis of various…

This paper analyses the experience of a teacher and her Year 6 class (10-11 year-olds) over a school year, while participating in a pilot project introducing Personal Digital Assistants as a learning tool. The intervention was initiated and supported by the local City Learning Centre, which was concerned with how best to use technologies for…

This technical report describes the development of reading comprehension assessments designed for use as progress monitoring measures appropriate for 2nd Grade students. The creation, piloting, and technical adequacy of the measures are presented. The following are appended: (1) Item Specifications for MC [Multiple Choice] Comprehension - Passage…

This technical report describes the development and piloting of reading comprehension measures developed for use by fifth-grade students as part of an online progress monitoring assessment system, http://easycbm.com. Each comprehension measure is comprised of an original work of narrative fiction approximately 1500 words in length followed by 20…

This study involved an examination of the impact of a self-questioning strategy on the text-reader assisted comprehension skills of six students in grades five through eight with reading disabilities (RD). The purpose of this study was to determine the degree older children with RD comprehend text-reader assisted text that is at or above their…

This report summarises key findings from the statistical aspects of the research conducted to assess the impact of the pilot on the attainment of bilingual pupils in participating primary schools. Research was conducted by a team at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) between 2004 and 2006 on behalf of the Department for…