This is the 4th report in a series tracking curricula discovery, selection, and adoption processes in U.S. K-12. This series has followed the direct impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on classroom materials, tracking the rise of digital learning and the subsequent return to the classroom. This survey was conducted in April 2023, with a total…

Influencing major education policies in the US such as school vouchers and charter schools, market theory assumes that organizational autonomy, parental choice, and competition between schools improve the quality of education. However, whether those policies can influence the instructional core of schools is not well understood. Comparing private…

Elementary students' literacy skills are decreasing nationwide ("The Nation's Report Card," 2019). This is concerning because as literacy skills slip, the literacy demands for American workers are steadily increasing (OECD, 2013). Unfortunately, adding to the situation is the fact that students' attitudes towards reading are worsening…

Experts within gifted education have advocated for the use of local norms when selecting students for gifted programs, instead of national-level norms. Local norms compare students to their immediate peers to identify gifted students and are believed to produce a more diverse gifted program. However, district integration limits the ability of…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to better understand K-12 district leaders' reasoning and processes for selecting and deploying EdTech instructional products, including which, if any, types of data are used to support decision-making. Design/methodology/approach: This multisite case study of educational technology (EdTech) decision-making…

In the years since the 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) placed a 1.0% cap for states on participation in the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS), states have worked hard to navigate the new restrictions on participation in…

We surveyed principals and assistant principals in 12 suburban and rural school districts in Kentucky in order to identify the underlying dimensions of the Preferred Teacher Applicant Characteristics Survey and to examine the relationships between school characteristics, administrator characteristics, and their preferences for teacher applicant…

Purpose: We surveyed educational leaders in a large, urban school district in the southeastern United States, examining: (1) the factor structure of scores from a new measure of administrators' preferred teacher applicant characteristics, and (2) the relationships between administrator demographics and their preferences.…

The purpose of this literature review was to examine education research on mentor identification, selection, preparation, and ongoing development. I organized the review in three main sections: (a) criteria for mentor identification and selection, (b) mentor preparation and development practices and processes, and (c) implications for music…

This study analyzed four widely used videoconferencing systems: Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, and WhatsApp. Using experiential e-learning as the framework for analysis, this study examined the systems' general characteristics, learning-related features, and usability. We conducted an analytical evaluation and analyzed system features in regard to…

The purpose of this article is to utilize new conceptions of music literacy to support and encourage popular music experiences in music education. A new definition of music literacy is presented and authentic popular music resources that function as (newly defined) texts to develop music literacy are identified and discussed. Finally,…

Despite the growing societal demand for multilingual graduates prepared to engage in local and global contexts, programs to meet these demands are scarce, especially in K-8 contexts. When schools do seek to implement programs, stakeholders struggle to choose from the established models because research documenting desired outcomes is lacking.…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Study Review Protocol accompanies the "WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook, Version 5.0," and guides reviews of studies by the WWC. The WWC uses this protocol to review all studies, including those cited as evidence for U.S. Department of Education grant competitions, studies that were funded by the…

This study aimed at examining the COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) games having strong potential for helping to enhance intrinsic motivation and computational thinking skills. To this end, STEAM game store was searched with the keywords of "programming, coding, computing, and algorithm". This search yielded 1,249 games. After eliminating…

The purpose of this study is to analyze the process of school principal selection and appointment in Turkey and some other developed countries in a comparative way. The specific purpose is to make suggestions in order to improve the school principal selection process in Turkey by comparatively analyzing school principal selection process in Turkey…